Charmed Daughter
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Eris Potter took a chance when she found out her dad had living relatives. The only catch? They're all Wiccans and the only one who knows about magic is her aunt through marriage. Can Eris get her life back together while learning the Wiccan ways and teach her cousins magic, or will outside forces drag her back into a war she wants no part of? FEM!Harry
1. Chapter 1

"Penny Halliwell? Who is Penny Halliwell?" muttered a girl looking at the list she had gotten from the bank.

Her third year was about to begin in a week, and in a fit of boredom she had gone to the bank and paid for a heritage test, if only to find if her aunt really was the last of her family.

Turned out she was related to the Warren clan of America through her great uncle, who married the last family head.

Further investigation revealed that the Warren family was primarily matriarchal.

She looked outside to Diagon alley.

On one hand, being a witch was the only reason she felt even remotely safe. On the other, the last three years had been horrible.

Teachers that wouldn't listen to reason, people expecting more of her than she was willing to give, and the worst part was that she suspected her friends weren't the kind of friends she wanted.

So she picked up a quill and wrote a letter to Penny Halliwell explaining who she was and asking if it were possible for them to meet. She went down to the Post Owlry which was for people who didn't own owls.

Normally she would use Hedwig, the pet owl Hagrid had gotten her years ago...but she didn't want anyone to know she might be leaving the country soon. Besides, she fully planned to get a cat. Hedwig was great, but she left much to be desired when it came to comforting. And a cat would draw less suspicion than a dog would.

She shuddered as she remembered the last two dogs she had a run in with. That creepy as hell black one that nearly got her run over and Marge's damn bull dog.

Definitely a cat.

A few days, nothing. Then she got a letter in the claws of an owl...all the way from America.

Looks like she would need to get a passport.

* * *

><p>Prudence Halliwell was the oldest of three sisters, and unfortunately for her the only one with a legal license. Which meant she would have to pick up her cousin from the air port after that weird letter Grams had gotten four days ago. Why an owl delivered it, she had no idea.<p>

She had already been sent circling twice.

Fifteen minutes later and the cop coming back to send her circling again, a girl appeared. There had been a second letter three days after the first, and it included a picture of their cousin.

She wasn't even fourteen from the looks of it.

Prue honked twice, alerting the girl to her presence. The girl grabbed her luggage and the closer she got, the more Prue frowned.

This girl was skinny, unhealthily so. Her skin tone was far too pale, her eyes too sharp, and her clothes looked like they barely fit her at all. About the only saving grace was that she was at least clean.

Prue wouldn't say she was a mind reader, but judging by how guarded the girl was she had a feeling that by the end of the week she would be getting a new little sister.

Phoebe might actually be thrilled.

"Prudence?" she asked questioning.

"Just call me Prue. Are you Eris?"

"Yeah. Hang on while I let Hedwig loose," said Eris Potter.

"You own a pet owl?"

"She was a gift," explained Eris. The owl sat on the girl's wrist without trying to savage her. "Follow me, okay girl?"

Hedwig hooted.

Eris managed to put her small suitcase into the trunk, and Prue drove them to the manor. Eris wasn't one to talk, and Prue was privately cataloging all the things that really set alarms off about her cousin.

* * *

><p>Five minutes after meeting Eris, Penny Halliwell was fully prepared to deal with something she hated.<p>

Magicals.

Eris privately noticed the subtle signs of magic. Prue had to go to her job and the other two were out of the house, so the first thing she asked was "Are they aware or have you been hiding it?"

"Their powers were bound years ago. However in order to keep their core from stagnating I set the binding spell to subtly drain it every night so that it can get used to being expended. Once they're ready the attic door will be unlocked and one of them can find the book. The first spell they'll find is the one to unbind their cores," said Penny flatly.

She hmmed in her throat.

"So why contact me now?"

"Twelve years ago my parents were murdered. I was sent to live with my maternal aunt who knows about magic and considers it evil. She won't even allow the word to be mentioned. I was stuck in the pub because of a small incident earlier this month and when I found out I have relatives on my father's side I figured it was a safe bet to try and contact you. Frankly I would rather be in America than Britain right now," said Eris honestly.

"Hypothetically, if you had to chose between Hogwarts and a school that served more than just witches..." said Penny carefully, an idea forming in her mind.

She couldn't enroll Eris into Salem, the school had already started and it would get the English down on them both. Magic School, on the other hand, offered night classes and would allow Eris to get her normal education with Phoebe.

"I have no issues with creatures if that's what your asking. So long as they don't try to eat, maim or kill me we'll get along fine," said Eris flatly.

"Do you mind sharing room with one of the girls? Phoebe's the closest to your age," said Penny pleasantly.

"Not at all, so long as she doesn't snore. Otherwise I might be obligated to smother her with a pillow," joked Eris.

Hermione snored, loudly. End of story.

Penny smiled.

"This house was built with old wards and is powered by a localized leyline. No messy ward stones to be found by a gardener, and I have a well stocked garden out back. None of the girls seemed interested in keeping up though," said Penny, "Besides, the so long as you maintain the secrecy pact and don't do harm, the American Ministry won't come down on you for magic use. We are a _Wiccan_ clan after all."

"Harm none and do what ye will," said Eris without thinking about it. The older religions fascinated her when she was little, especially since Petunia wanted nothing to do with magic. She always found it fascinating that a few herbs and ingredients could do so much.

Unfortunately Snape had somewhat ruined that for her.

"Exactly. If you're interested I can teach you how to grow the proper herbs and you can cover potions here," said Penny.

She knew she had the girl hooked with that. Finally, someone who could help her around the garden without any complaints!

"You don't have anything against owls or cats do you?"

"So long as they don't make a mess, then no. And none of the girls are allergic."

Eris looked relieved.

"I have a pet owl, and I've always wanted a cat," she admitted.

"So, Eris, are you open to being adopted as a Halliwell?"

"Being a Potter has brought me nothing but grief. And I would much rather live here than go back to England," admitted Eris.

"We'll get started on the paperwork tomorrow. Thankfully we share a blood bond, or the girls do, otherwise the English and the goblins would be a nightmare to deal with."

Penny could live with a witch in the family, and Eris seemed very open to the idea of learning the Wiccan way.

Should be a...nice...surprise for those stuck up pure bloods in England.

* * *

><p>Phoebe was giddy. They were getting a new little sister! Well, technically she was their cousin, but still!<p>

Piper didn't know what to think...until she found out Eris loved to cook too. After that the two were happily swapping recipes.

Prue, well Prue had seen this coming the minute she noted the abuse. She would withhold judgment for at least a week, and she only hoped the girl wasn't as bad as Phoebe was. Though she was acting more like Piper at the moment.

"This is Eris, your cousin. Though she is free to change it once the adoption goes through," said Penny.

Really, what was James thinking naming his daughter after the primordial goddess of chaos and discord?

"Well if we go with the theme of mythology, how about Psyche?" asked Eris.

"Why Psyche?"

"Psyche was considered more beautiful than Aphrodite, and when the goddess ordered Eros to make her fall in love with something hideous he fell for her instead," explained Eris with a shrug.

"What about Pandora?" said Phoebe impishly.

Eris made a face.

"Pandora was Zeus' punishment for Prometheus and was a gift to his brother. She was nothing more than a tool," said Eris.

"Persephone," said Prue.

"Remind me not to eat any pomegranates," joked Eris.

"Why?"

"Hades tricked her into staying with him through a pomegranate seed. Because she had eaten something of his realm, she wasn't able to escape. So they had to make a compromise because Demeter was enraged that he took her daughter. Which was kind of weird that he would take her because Persephone was his niece through Zeus," said Eris.

Prue was grinning. She couldn't help it. It was so rare to find anyone who loved history and mythology like she did. And very few were aware that Persephone had been tricked by a pomegranate.

"How about Cerridwen?" asked Eris.

"Who is..." started Phoebe, when Prue answered.

"Welsh goddess of wisdom, knowledge and transformation. She once tried to make a potion of knowledge but one of her apprentice accidentally caught a few drops on his tongue. Enraged she chased after him and killed him when he took the form of a chicken. Nine months later she gave birth to him in another form as a bard."

"Cerridwen is a perfectly acceptable name for a girl," said Penny firmly. Certainly more appropriate than Eris.

"So is Cerri staying?" asked Phoebe hopefully.

"You'll be sharing a room," said Penny.

Phoebe looked really happy about that news. Finally, she wouldn't be the youngest! She immediately hugged the girl, who tensed before she relaxed. Phoebe didn't notice, but Prue did.

It was just another sign that she was better off in their house rather than Europe.

Cerridwen Eris Halliwell (formerly Eris Potter) hummed along to the radio as she expertly weeded the garden. Penny, or Grams as she insisted the teen call her, cheerfully quizzed her over the various plants and what they were used for in potions.

While the potions class in Hogwarts had gone down hill in a hurry, their herbology department was second to none in Europe.

Grams was very happy someone was finally helping her in the garden. It would have been a terrible waste if the girls let it go... she had always found working in the yard very soothing.

It had taken a bit of paperwork and a few sleepless nights, but the adoption had gone through faster than it normally might have when Cerri presented evidence of abuse, neglect and the most damning evidence of all for Dumbledore's case, the misadventures she had in Hogwarts because the teachers were ill equipped and poorly trained in their jobs.

Once their relation was confirmed (or more specifically the marriage license to Cerri's great uncle Mark and the fact Prue, Piper and Phoebe were all his granddaughters) there was little Dumbledore could do to stop it. Especially since very few people could access Magic School without the specially warded portal key, which Dumbledore couldn't get since he headed a rival school.

All Cerri had to do was go to a mirror taller than she was, put the key onto the glass and say the pass phrase to activate the spell.

And she was loving every minute of magic school. It was one of the few accredited schools for any magical creature so long as they agreed to a truce among the species, and much to the anger of the European pure bloods, was so exclusive it was almost impossible to get into unless you knew someone. So the fact Cerri had openly dumped Hogwarts and had gotten accepted in a rather quick manner had the Ministry (and some of the Hogwarts staff) fuming because it was like she was saying that Hogwarts wasn't good enough for her.

The thing that really pissed off the European crowd was the fact that they accepted werewolves, vampires, even the occasional centaur so long as they didn't start anything. Creatures deemed not worthy of entering Hogwarts.

Even Hagrid could have gotten a place in the school...if he had known about it that is.

However while she was attending the Magic School at night, Cerri was catching up on her muggle schooling. Thankfully her new 'sisters' were more than happy to help her.

"Very good Cerri. Now what about this?"

"Lavender. Used to calm nerves," said Cerri dutifully.

"And this?"

"Catnip. A few springs in hot water can ease headaches, can also be used in tea. Part of the mint family."

"Why couldn't Piper have taken an interest in gardening. Or perhaps Phoebe?" sighed Grams. Cerri was the only one who knew anything about how to maintain an herb garden. Piper had initially been interested, until she found her passion for cooking. Grams looked at a dirty Cerri. "You will teach them when I'm gone, won't you?"

"They're family. And heaven knows they'll need all the help they can get once they awaken their powers. Especially once word spreads about who they are."

Penny had explained about the prophecy of the Charmed ones, three sisters who had the power to put evil in it's place and restore a delicate balance. The thing was that as long as the girls were unaware of their powers, evil couldn't seek them out and kill them.

She was getting old. Too old to maintain the spell keeping those powers contained and hidden. And her health was fading. Even for a witch she knew her death would happen within a few years or so.

To be honest, Cerri's appearance had come as a blessing in disguise. She had never taught any of the girls magic, and their mother had wanted nothing to do with it.

So it was nice to have someone to pass her skills onto.

As it was, only Cerri was allowed into the attic. The portal she typically used happened to be a rather large mirror in there, and a simple phasing spell allowed her to walk through the wall into the attic, since it was heavily warded until Penny's death.

And every night, Cerri studied the Book of Shadows. So she could guide her older sisters into the world of magic without them having to rely on the Whitelighters, who weren't very good at keeping their charges safe like they were supposed to.

Penny had a dim view of the Whitelighter Council of Elders.


	2. Chapter 2

"Welcome to Gringotts, Lady Potter," said Riptooth.

"I came here to discuss the option of being blood adopted into the Halliwell family," said Cerri.

"There is a potion that will replace the Evans blood from your body, but it's quite painful unless applied by a certified healer. There is also a blood spell, but it's restricted because the last time it was used some idiot broke into the ritual and nearly killed the one using it. The potion is your best bet."

"Does it require anything, and how much is the cost?"

"For best results, you should add a small piece of the people you wish to replace the Evans blood. A strand of hair from each works well, but it takes the longest to kick in. As for the cost, the potion itself is a hundred galleons, since it takes time to make and it can only be done in small batches to avoid waste."

"How much for the recipe?"

"The recipe is twenty galleons," said Riptooth automatically, "However it should only be attempted by a potionsmaster or an experienced Wiccan. If incorrectly brewed it can have disastrous side effects, like taking powers from others."

"Penny Halliwell is an experienced Wiccan. Now about my accounts..."

"As of right now the main Potter account is at roughly one billion pounds. The trust vault, which was set for your use has one million pounds. The Black Account, which comes from both your paternal grandmother and being named heir by the last head Sirius Black, is estimated at two million pounds. The Peverell vault is estimated at five hundred thousand pounds, plus a rather large library which was put into Gringotts shortly before the death of the last head," said Riptooth, looking at the papers he was given. He suddenly found something that made him frown.

"What?"

"This is strange. According to this you have a betrothed through the Weasley family, and the contract was written up by one Molly Weasley and Albus Dumbledore."

"WHAT?! Is there any way to break it?"

"You can reset your magical guardian once the potion takes full effect. Before then I would recommend changing the names on the vaults. Now, despite the fact you are underage, you can still appoint a new guardian for yourself until you turn seventeen."

"Can I dole out the Potter fortune before I change the name?"

"As heir, yes. Though there is a slight problem you should be aware of."

"What problem?"

"Your parents are alive."

"What."

"According to these records James Potter abdicated in favor of his heir, but left the trust vault the only one active. His current residence is in Canada. You have two brothers and one sister..."

"You mean to tell me that my mother and father left me to suffer through my maternal aunt? Why?"

"I do not know. However because he abdicated his position as family head, you are in a unique position to cut them out of the Potter fortune."

Cerridwen decided that instead of acting like the Gryffindor she was, for once she would be the Slytherin she should have been.

"Exactly how much do they use annually?"

"Roughly two thousand galleons a year."

"Here's what we'll do. Set aside twenty thousand galleons and leave it in whatever vault they use the most. The rest I'm dividing between myself and my sisters, since they have a right to it as well. My soon-to-be former parents aren't getting a knut more."

The goblin had a vicious grin. Leaving a small amount of the fortune for them meant that the Potters wouldn't be aware that she had cut them off until it was far too late to change anything. James Potter wasn't adding any money into the account. Which was why his next question was "Do you want us to have pictures of their reaction when they find out you know they were alive the entire time?"

"I'll pay a hundred galleons just to see the look on their face when they realize their mistake," said Cerri viciously.

"Done. Now how do you want to do this?"

"Is it possible to put galleons into my sister's accounts, except converted into dollars?"

"It would be cheaper to put it in bullion, and the mundane banks will convert that into cash."

"Here's what we'll do. I want two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of gold bullion, or close enough to it deposited into my sister's accounts. That should last them until their powers are finally unbound. After that we can decide how to split up the gold and the rest," said Cerri.

Goblins wouldn't deal with a witch who had no powers. If the others tried to take gold directly from the vault before they got their powers, they would be laughed out of the bank. So Cerri would take the middle ground.

She would leave gold in their accounts until their powers were freed, and then they could decide what to do with it.

And since she wasn't completely heartless, she left ten thousand galleons for her brothers and sister in a trust vault when the Potters finally found that Cerri knew about them and she was really angry with them.

She did, however, get their current address just in case she ever felt the need to drop in on them.

Grams was rather pleased when she found out what Cerri had done with her vault. Not only did it wreck the plans of Dumbledore, but it also meant that the girls would be able to keep the house in the family for years since they could now pay for the upkeep.

Piper was just happy she could go to culinary school now, since she had been worried that Prue would overwork herself trying to pay for it. Prue had gone into history and art. Phoebe was still trying to find what she was good at.

Then they hit a snag a month later.

* * *

><p>"What."<p>

It was such a simple word, but it conveyed Cerri's disbelief in the issue that Riptooth had given her.

"Minister Fudge has apparently decided to try and force your return through the illegal marriage contract that was written up to you and one Ronald Weasley. Unless you bring forth someone of the Potter bloodline to break the contract that is over the age of seventeen within the next two months, your magic will be taken from you until you marry him," stated Ripfang. He looked rather disgusted by the tactic.

Cerri looked pissed...but fortunately there was a way around this mess.

"Prue turns eighteen next week. She's the 'oldest' confirmed Potter that is legally registered. Her powers might be bound but they are still present."

"We can send one of our first gens to bring the paperwork. A little blood and this contract will be rendered void. Since this wasn't approved by your true magical guardian or you, it was on shaky ground to begin with."

"You might want to bring something that will fake a papercut. Prue and the others were raised without the knowledge of magic, so pretend they're still muggles. No one would look twice at a papercut though," warned Cerri.

Riptooth's eye glinted.

"A papercut would fill the blood requirements, and her signature with a special pen can deal with the rest. Once she turns eighteen we'll send our man over."

"Please tell me there's something we can do to keep this from happening again. Some fine or humiliating thing we can force Fudge to deal with?" said Cerri, eyes glinting.

"We can claim he tried to perform 'line theft' through a false marriage contract and then steal most of the money he makes through bribes. But we'll want a percentage," said Riptooth immediately.

Cerri grinned evilly.

"Half to the goblins, half into the Halliwell accounts."

"Deal."

* * *

><p>Cerri picked up the paper which had been dropped by a discreet postal owl. It was easier to hide from her sisters, and this one was charmed so that they never saw the pictures move.<p>

Her grin was cruel and she barely refrained from cackling.

_**MINISTER FUDGE IN HOT WATER FOR LINE THEFT DUE TO FALSE MARRIAGE CONTRACT! MINISTER NOW UNDER INVESTIGATION FROM GOBLINS AND WIZANGAMOT TO DISCUSS HIS FATE! GOBLINS SEIZE MOST OF FUDGES' VAULT AS RECOMPENSE!**_

**In a startling announcement from the Goblin nation's representative and liaison for Gringotts Bank, Minister Fudge is now under heavy fire after an attempt to force Eris Potter back to England using a marriage contract. What our reporters were shocked to learn was that the contract in question was to the Weasley clan, specifically the Girl-Who-Lived's best friend Ronald Weasley. Mr. Weasley denied any knowledge under oath about the existence of the contract. What was more was that this contract was never made by Ms. Potter or by Mr. Weasley, but by the supposed Magical Guardians. Aurors are currently looking into who authorized this, as the goblins were very adamant that Potter's magical guardian is none other than Sirius Black.**

**When questions by reporters, the goblins said that the contract was rendered void by Potter's current guardian, her cousin Prudence Halliwell, age 18. **

**The Halliwell family, who are descended from the very prestigious Warren clan of America, are related to Potter through her paternal second uncle.**

**For the full contract, Page three**

**For history of the Warren clan, Page ten**

**For more of Fudge's mistakes, Page thirteen**

Cerri grinned.

"Is that the paper?" asked Penny. Cerri handed it over and the woman started laughing. She knew something had to be up when Cerri brought an adult muggleborn home a week after Prue turned eighteen and discreetly got her blood on an official contract.

Prue had been disgusted with the British idiots trying to reclaim her little sister through such an outdated method, and had refused to speak of what she had to sign. She was just glad that there wouldn't be a repeat.

"So how is school going?"

"Phoebe is a lot of help, even if she is in a year above mine. Though I could do without the boys staring at my ass and bust all the time," said Cerri annoyed.

"Language Cerri. And unfortunately you'll have to deal with that. They're teenagers, meaning that their hormones are ruling them until they grow up a little more. Which brings me to another uncomfortable topic. Dating."

Cerri winced.

"I've had five boys already come to ask me out. And I'll tell you the same thing I told them. You have to get through Prue and Piper first."

And that hadn't amused Prue one bit. Though to be fair it was better they deal with the strict Prudence than an angry Penny.

Penny smiled. It was good to see Cerri going out of her way to bring her newly found family closer.

"Still, we'll need to have a _talk_ about boys. If only so you have something else to commiserate to your sisters with."

Cerri grimaced. The only thing that ran through her mind was the fact that at least it was better than having to hear this from McGonagall, Madam Pomphrey or the Goddess forbid, Molly Weasley.

When a girl hit puberty, they were generally sent to either their head of house (if they were a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor respectively) or to Hogwart's Medi-witch. Had Cerri hit that time during the summer months, she would have had this conversation with Molly Weasley. She had been dreading it since second year.

She was still mortified beyond belief though.

* * *

><p>"What happened to you?" asked Phoebe, looking at her little sister in worry.<p>

Cerri lifted her head long enough to say the magic words.

"The _Talk_."

Phoebe grimaced.

"You poor thing. How does raiding the kitchens for chocolate sound?"

"Piper used the last of the chocolate up yesterday. What time is it?"

"Around seven."

"Let's see what's on at the movies," said Cerri, sitting up.

Phoebe grinned. Out of all the sisters, she got along with Cerri the best because they were the closest in age. Even if Cerri had managed to skip a year in school once she got used to the American equivalents. Though to be fair, the fact that America didn't used the metric system threw her for a real loop.

The second closest to Cerri was Piper, and that was because they bonded over cooking. Prue usually talked over various mythologies and legends with her, and Cerri managed to get her interested in Wiccan culture. It was fascinating how much Christian/Catholic dogma had in fact been integrated from pagan rites just to keep people happy when one religion took over another.

Like Christmas or Halloween for example.

Cerri grinned as she tossed a pillow at Phoebe, sparking a pillow fight. Piper walked in, got hit in the face, walked out and the grabbed another pillow before she nailed them both at the same time.

Eventually they somehow managed to bring Prue into the fight.


	3. Chapter 3

Cerri stared down the dog in front of her. The dog stared back, but his tail was wagging hopefully. Penny watched them both in open amusement.

"I don't know who you're trying to fool, but at least you showed more common sense than most wizards," said Cerri flatly.

Ever since the attempt by the English Ministry to bring her back through a fake marriage contract that fell through, Cerri had kept her eyes peeled for any unwanted visitors. It was only because of the upgraded wards around the house that she knew this was an animagus and not a real dog.

The dog at least had the decency to go around back to the garden which was strictly Cerri's part of the house since none of the others wanted to deal with it.

The dog turned into the one person who could ruin everything. Sirius Black.

Who was technically the legal guardian of Eris Potter, despite the fact her name was now Cerridwen Halliwell.

"So. I take it you're interested in being around for Cerri?" said Penny pleasantly...though she still had her wand in her hand. Sirius took the implied warning with ease.

"Like I'm going to let the idiots in England try to force my goddaughter and cousin back when she's better off away from their manipulations. Besides, Dumbledore pretty much ruined the only chance he had at my help bringing her back when he didn't bothered to look deeper at my supposed betrayal," said Sirius flatly.

"Just so we're clear Black, when it comes to magic the other girls are not ready for it," said Penny.

Sirius looked at Cerri.

"They're the Charmed Ones, meaning all hell is going to literally break loose once their powers are unbound, and I'm going to be stuck keeping them alive while they try to come to terms with the fact they have magic. Until then, they're considered squibs who know about their Wiccan heritage but prefer not to think about it. Personally I want to see the look on Lily and James Potter's face when they find out I've essentially cut them out of the family," said Cerri shrugging.

Sirius stared.

"Lily and James died."

"They faked their deaths and James abdicated in favor of his heir to keep up the ruse. Because they were stupid enough to do that without confirming I would be okay after Voldemort's supposed 'death', I cut them out of the Potter line and have currently rerouted almost all the gold to new vaults," said Cerri flatly, then her smirk turned pure Slytherin, "And the goblins were kind enough to take pictures of James Potter's face when he learns not only do I know they're alive, but I've cut them off from the gold."

Sirius had two choices. He could either stay nearby and insure his goddaughter was happy...or he could look for James. Then he considered how badly James' death had affected him and the fact that had he come forward he wouldn't have had to spend the last twelve years in hell. Sirius' face took on an unrepentant smirk.

"I'm just going to consider this a massive prank on him and then I'll punch him in the face when he finds out," said Sirius. James deserved that much. If he hadn't stayed in hiding then Sirius wouldn't have had to spend the last twelve years feeling as thought it was his fault for suggesting Peter.

Penny laughed.

"I happen to know there's a house two blocks down that's available for sale. I'm sure we can work out an arrangement with the American Ministry and the goblins so you can settle in."

"Consider me a private tutor when the girls get their powers. My family is from an old line of druids, and it shouldn't be too hard to get the old books from England."

Penny gave him a rather odd smile.

"The Black family is almost as old as our own, and the additions to the Book would be most welcome," she said.

The 'Book' of course being the infamous Book of Shadows which was the grimoire of the Warren clan since Melinda first awakened her potential as a magical Wiccan.

The problem was that it was dreadfully incomplete and only had the bare minimal of magical knowledge, considering Melinda had been persecuted by her fellow magicals when they discovered she was a Wiccan. Every Warren after that took care to avoid the magicals because they looked down on Wiccans. It was only recently that the attitude had become more apathetic than derisive.

Sirius had no love for his family after the row with his mother shortly before sixth year. As such he had no real reason not to hand over a bunch of tomes his family had been hoarding for centuries that he wasn't going to look at anyway. If he needed the information he could always ask the girls for it.

Penny was pleased that the book magically expanded to add the new information. She was, however, highly confused when a second book was created overnight that contained the less savory aspects.

The _Book of Shades_, as the title claimed on the first page, was the evil equivalent of the _Book of Shadows._ It held every dark ritual, potion and pretty much anything to turn a Wiccan evil in short order. It was also sealed with magic the moment it was created and would take the full force of all three Charmed Ones just to open the thing.

From what Cerri could tell, having taken a magical duplicate of both to Magic School, the Book of Shades was mostly a reference to the Book of Shadows. If the girls ever encountered anything in the second Book, it would automatically search for it and then produce a new page in the first on how to counter, destroy, or reverse it.

Penny was less than pleased at the reaction the White Council had to the new book's creation, even if they technically had no jurisdiction over them yet. Until the girls were unsealed, they couldn't do a thing to them.

At least, not until a minor accident during meditation involving Cerri and a ritual gone wrong from England.

* * *

><p>Cerri had picked meditation for one reason, and one reason only. Occulmency, or the art of shielding the mind against outside influences. Sirius offered to teach her how to become an animagus, with approval from Penny.<p>

Because the girls were still in the dark about the existence of magic, Sirius had become Cerri's private tutor in the subject. It was a trial run so he could help her teach the others about it once they unsealed their powers. And since he had found Occulmency made it easier to become an animal, or at least keep the animal side from taking complete control, he had told her the first lesson was to learn how to shield her mind.

Hence why she was currently in the meditation garden under the strict watch of the teacher. If anyone looked like they were goofing off or sleeping, then the teacher would walk up behind them and smack them in the head with a reinforced wooden ruler. It was very effective.

Cerri was proud to say she was one of the few students who had yet to be hit by the instrument.

Cerri was in the middle of building her shields (one of the few approved activities in the garden) when she was hit with a wave of strange magic.

One minute she was building walls in her mind, the next she was in an area that could be mistaken for heaven.

"_Are you a new White Lighter?"_ asked a male voice in surprise. Cerri looked around and realized she was in what was clearly a meditation garden.

Cerri looked at him in disbelief. Then she noticed her outfit and her eyebrows twitched rampantly in irritation. She was going to hex whoever did this to her!

_"No, I am a Wiccan witch who was meditating when something interfered. If I find out who caused this they'll wish my grandmother got to them first," _growled Cerri. She noticed her voice had slipped into another language. Yet another point to her soul being in the wrong place.

The man looked shocked before he recognized her.

"_Cerridwen Halliwell. How did you end up here?"_

"_I was trying to build up mental shields when I got hit with some strange magic. Next thing I knew, I was here."_

"_This is bad. If they Council finds out you're here..."_

"_Any clue how I'm supposed to get back?"_

The man looked slightly panicked as he picked up an alert from the Council about an intruder or possible new member. He gently pushed her out of the garden with the words _"Try visualizing your magic! If you've been practicing Occulmency you should know what it feels like by now! Go!"_

Cerri concentrated on her magic. It took her a few seconds, but once she had a good grasp on it she yanked hard. She woke up back in Magic School with a concerned teacher standing over her.

"Ms. Halliwell, what exactly just happened?"

"I have no idea, but if I find the idiots responsible they'll be wishing Grams was the one who found them first," said Cerri rubbing her head. She had a massive headache.

* * *

><p>After the incident in the garden, Cerri had been forced to lay off magic practice until they found what exactly sent her to the realm of the White Lighters.<p>

It wasn't until two weeks later that they found out the British had tried a long-disbanded ritual tournament trying to force the 'Girl-Who-Lived' back and the fact she had changed her signature enough to slip past the net had caused an unusual reaction.

Because she had instinctively drawn on her magic, it sent her to the White Lighters.

According to Sirius, one of her Black ancestors had been a White Lighter who had a child with a witch before he died. Amazingly, the half-breed was never discovered and he married a Black.

Which resulted in Cerri accidentally awakening a heritage she never knew she had. Which meant that the girls had the potential to awaken it as well.

It was just extremely unlikely.

It also opened up an entirely new can of worms Penny just didn't have the patience to deal with.

Four teenaged girls with hormones? Easy. Teaching an abused almost fourteen-year-old about Wiccan rites? Not a problem.

Ask her to deal with the idiocy of the White Council because of something the girl had no part of outside of instinctual use of magic to save herself?

She passed that on to Sirius. Let him deal with those idiots.

* * *

><p>Sirius looked at the man in his house who wanted to take Cerri away for 'training'. Unfortunately for him, Penny had been very descriptive of what White Lighters were and the fact that they had a strict rule about not allowing newbies to contact their family once they became part of the group.<p>

"Denied. I am not losing my goddaughter twice just because you insist she needs to become a White Lighter despite the fact she's still alive. If you want to train her so damn bad, then you can send someone down here to do it while allowing her to remain with her family," said Sirius with a flat glare.

"She needs training. We cannot have a White Lighter on Earth without supervision. She would be targeted by demons at the very least."

"And the fact she currently the blood-sister of the Charmed Ones, who still haven't unsealed their powers, is of course of no consequence?" said Sirius sarcastically.

"What."

"Cerridwen Halliwell. She gave up her Evans heritage in exchange for becoming a full member of the family. Now, all three of the sisters adore her like she was one of them, and I don't think they'll appreciate the Council essentially kidnapping their youngest sister. Might make dealing with them a bit difficult when they unseal their powers. And then there's the fact Cerridwen's birth name is Eris Potter," said Sirius, grinning wider the more the White Lighter paled.

"Eris...Potter?" he said, mouth suddenly becoming very dry.

"As in the Girl-who-lived," confirmed Sirius. This was way too much fun.

"I'll have to confer with the Elders about this."

"Oh please, take your time. Cerri's currently on leave from Magic School because whatever awakened her White Lighter powers is playing merry hell with her magic," said Sirius cheerfully.

A few days later a second White Lighter showed up. Only this time Cerri happens to be at Sirius' home looking through his books. She might not be allowed to use magic until her core settled down, but that didn't mean she couldn't study.

The second the man saw her face he blinked.

"So you made it back then?"

Cerri's jaw dropped.

"You're the White Lighter who made sure they didn't find me when I was stuck!"

"I may be a White Lighter, but there's no way I'm helping the Elders capture a fourteen-year-old kid who did nothing wrong."

"Well in that case you're welcome to stick around. Like I told that other idiot, we don't care if you train her, but we do take offense if they tried to keep her from her family," said Sirius.

"So what's your name?"

"Call me Leo."

"Call me Siri, and this is Cerri," said Sirius.

"So where do we start?"

"This might take years you realize. Training someone with these kind of powers won't be easy. At the very least we'll have to come up with a way to keep the Elders off your case when you finally make it up to the area we usually stay in without them trying to remove you from the family," said Leo.

"Meh. Just point out that if they remove her from the Halliwells, she won't be inclined to end Voldemort for them. Last I checked there was a prophecy, which was why James and Lily went into hiding to begin with," said Sirius shrugging.

"I think that's the only reason they didn't just grab her when they found out where she was," admitted Leo.

"So where do we start?"


	4. Chapter 4

"A private detective company," deadpanned Penny.

"Yup."

"With bounty hunters," continued Cerri.

"Absolutely."

"And the cops are okay with this?" said Cerri incredulous.

"Bounty hunters can make arrests across state lines, and if I'm also a private detective then I get credibility with the cops. And this way I don't have to work for anyone but myself," said Sirius proudly.

"Uh-huh. Is this revenge for the fact that the Aurors didn't think to check the fact you're my magically bound godfather?"

"Partially, but mostly because it allows me to continue with some of my less desirable habits without getting in trouble for it," admitted Sirius.

Cerri and Penny knew what he meant. Sirius was an unrepentant snoop. If there was something being hidden, he would go to great lengths to find out what. It was somewhat ironic that a pure blood like Sirius was actually better with a camera and taking photos than Lily was. When a muggleborn first introduced him to cameras, Sirius was hooked at the potential for capturing blackmail. He even took classes after Hogwarts to learn how to develop the film himself.

In fact, he had turned the basement into the perfect room to develop his film.

So yes, being a private detective would be perfect for someone like Sirius, even if it meant he had to work with the cops. The fact he became a bounty hunter besides that was just a way for him to make some extra cash.

However it was Cerri who decided to point out something Sirius apparently hadn't thought of.

"Wait, if you're a private detective and a bounty hunter on the side, does that mean I can pay you to hunt down Lily and James and bring them to justice for leaving me in that hellhole?"

Sirius blinked.

"Why would you want to do that?"

Cerridwen gave him an evil smile. It was decidedly Slytherin.

"They're about to use up the gold in the vaults, and Riptooth said James is getting suspicious. And if I 'hire' you to track them down, then you'll be able to get some first-hand revenge of your own because they stayed hidden even after Voldemort's supposed death. I can't imagine any reason they stayed hidden. But the fact he abdicated means we can really get our revenge on those idiots."

"I'm listening."

And so Cerridwen outlined her plan. It was cruel, it was petty...and it had a lot of sweet karmic justice for everyone. Especially Sirius, who had been blamed for all these years on the death of his best friend and his wife, only to learn they were very much alive and living it up in another country.

Best of all, James was about to get a real nasty wake-up call from the goblins, who were going to take vindictive pleasure in making sure everyone who had treated his daughter like someone they could just use and use and not think twice about what happened to her knew what they had done. Not only was he about to lose his money and the fame of dying a hero, but he was going to have to answer to the same daughter he had all but abandoned.

Cerridwen couldn't wait to see the look of disgusted shock on Snape's face when he found out Lily had been alive this whole time. He had treated Cerri like crap from day one, all because he saw her father, who he hated because he was a bully and for taking Lily from him. Finding out the woman he had loved had abandoned her first child, well, Snape was about to get a wake-up call of his own. Cerri wondered how he would react to the news she had acted like a true Slytherin.

"Hmm. Payback and I get closure. Count me in," said Sirius.

"And why stop with just the Potters? I've been looking up some of the law books I bought in England when first got my trust vault and there are a few ones in there about abandoning children and not paying any support," said Cerri.

"Oh?" said Penny looking at her.

"Well the Potters were alive all this time right? They are well within the legal definition of child neglect and abandonment according to England's laws. And I'm pretty sure Petunia would _love_ to make her sister suffer for ditching me on her through Dumbledore...who will have to answer to the cops about why he just dumped me on her," explained Cerri.

If there was one thing that would get Petunia to help her, it was taking down Dumbledore and Lily.

And if Cerri played her cards right, it would force the entire magical nation of Europe to get their heads out of their ass and wake up to the 21st century.

She was still furious they had allowed a Death Eater into the school long enough for him to slip in an older piece of parchment from her second year with her name on it into a known magical artifact in an attempt to make her come back to participate in a tournament that had an overly high death rate. Sure it meant she got to meet someone as cool as Leo a bit early, considering he was the one the Elders had chosen to guide and protect the sisters when they unsealed their powers, but she was still angry they had tried to kill her even though she had finally found a semblance of peace she had been looking for.

She was very pleased to find out that because the goblet refused to spit out her name, despite the fact that the fake had used her original magical signature, she was not considered a champion.

Boy had Fudge been pissed when that came out. It had been his idea, and he was already treading on thin ice since the marriage contract 'fell' through. Of course had he succeeded he would have been in even hotter water because the Americans most definitely would have raised hell because by the time he found out about the fake contract she had already become a full citizen under the guise of political refuge.

It didn't matter she was still a teenager and at the moment she was still the Ministry's golden girl, the fact of the matter was that the English failed to protect a known and targeted minor who had family who were legal US citizens who were more than happy to take her. The fact she was attending a known neutral school instead of the formerly _prestigious_ Hogwarts was just icing on that particular cake.

"So what should I call my agency? No way am I working for anyone else."

"Hound Dog Investigations?" suggested Penny sweetly. It was a pun on the fact he was named after the dog star, his animagus form was a dog, and the fact he was a known womanizer...though he had been getting better finding out he hadn't caused his friend's death. That and Penny wasn't afraid to literally twist his ear when Cerri told her of some of the things Sirius got up to in his house.

"How about Karma Collectors?" suggested Cerri grinning.

The two adults looked at her.

"Considering his first case is to bring the wrath of 'karma' down on his soon-to-be former best friend, and the fact we both know he has a habit of sniffing out cheaters and traitors and let's face it. What would be funnier to Sirius than enacting a bit of karmic revenge on people who totally deserve it while pranking them?"

"Hmm...a reason to get more blackmail..." said Sirius rubbing his chin. He had ditched the beard when Cerri had placed an itching spell on it. It made him look old, according to her.

Sirius might look in his thirties, but he was often a bigger child than Cerri when push came to shove. It was why he was often crashing at the Halliwell house for meals. Piper certainly didn't mind, because he cheerfully acted as her test dummy for any new recipes she came up with. So the idea of using his company to get legal blackmail on people who totally deserved having an unrepentant prankster on their backs was something he liked.

"How about Karmic Police instead?" offered Sirius.

"I like Karma Collectors better," said Cerri.

"It is a bit more catchy than Karma Police, and it states clearly what I deal with," said Sirius.

Karma, or what goes around comes around. If there were two things Sirius hates it was disloyalty and leeches. In other words cheaters and deadbeat parents.

The fact he was being paid to stalk people and get blackmail was just bonus to him. He had already gleefully turned Remus into his assistant.

Which basically meant he would be dumping any and all paperwork on the exasperated werewolf's shoulders.

The only reason Remus put up with it was because A) he was used to this and B) because he felt guilty for believing Sirius had betrayed them at all. Finding out James had been alive the entire time and had left his best friend to suffer in what could only be described as hell on earth was something he was still coming to terms with.

On the plus side, Remus no longer had to fear his werewolf would hurt anyone. There was a plant in the Book of Shadows known to calm someone cursed with the affliction and Penny just happened to know a friend who had it. Remus just curled up like a big puppy in a small section of the now massive garden on full moons and Moony just went to sleep with Sirius curled up next to him in support. According to Remus, Moony had never viewed James as his 'Alpha' because his form was a prey. The fact Sirius had beat him on more than one occasion as Padfoot on his own before the potion was discovered meant Moony officially saw Padfoot as the Alpha of the pack.

Something that amused Sirius a little too much...right up until Remus asked Cerri to bring Sirius' ego back down to reasonable size.

"So we're agreed then? We all go visit Canada long enough to see the look on the Potter's face when they find out I essentially kicked them out and plan to force them to face the consequences of their stupidity?" asked Cerri a little too eagerly.

"First things first, we contact the ICW and ask them to help us negotiate with the English with charges against Dumbledore and the Potters," said Penny firmly. No way was Europe getting her adopted grandchild this late into the game.

"Oh this is going to be good. And since Dumbledore was in charge of the Wizangamot when I was 'arrested' we can bring him up on the criminal charges of having me unlawfully imprisoned without a trial!" said Sirius gleefully.

Let it never be said Sirius wasn't a little vengeful about what had happened to him. A Black may forgive, but they certainly never forgot...most of the spells in their arsenal had been made to get revenge at a later date for insult against the family.

* * *

><p>The first James knew that something bad was about to happen was when he went to get some gold for the family expenses...only to be told the account was closed by order of the family head.<p>

Which lead to a pointless two hours in the bank arguing he was the eldest member of the family, and therefor the family head of the Potter line. The goblins didn't care, they just showed him the door...via a kick to the arse onto the street.

James had to return home with a sore ass and a very irate wife waiting. She had just gotten a call from the small library she volunteered at. There was a bounty hunter looking for someone fitting her exact description, and he was being helped by the cops. They wanted to know what she had done to the Americans.

But the final straw was when a magical barrier was erected around their home, trapping everyone in it inside. James had his wand out when the door was broken down.

There was only one reason he didn't hex the man responsible, or react in time to the uppercut he got was from shock at the man wearing a bounty hunter's badge around his neck in a visible manner.

Sirius Black had found them, and he was pissed as hell.

"James and Lily Potter, you are under arrest for child abandonment, failure to pay child support and anything else we can tack on without being called for it," he said clearly in disgust. Lily took the papers with numb fingers.

"These are for Dumbledore!" she said horrified.

Sirius had a cold smile on his face.

"He's next."

"Mom? What's going on?" asked Rose, their second child. Derrick and Harry, her twin brothers, looked at the cold-eyed man with confused and scared expressions.

"Your parents are finally paying the price for abandoning your sister to the mercy of your maternal aunt and the idiots of the English magical society for the past fourteen years. It was just your bad luck the goblins happened to tell her that her parents were in fact still very much alive and in Canada," said Sirius.

"Why are you doing this? And since when are you a bounty hunter?!" said James. He was still in shock.

"Since I had to break out of Azkaban when people thought I had betrayed you to your deaths...and because you didn't think to check on your daughter once word of Voldemort's death had become public," said Sirius in disgust. Then his smirk turned Marauder-evil, "Fortunately the Warren clan was more than happy to adopt Eris into their family when it became clear her own parents and aunt weren't going to do the job right."

"My daughter will never be a Wiccan!" shouted James.

"Unfortunately for you, _Dad_, I am no longer your daughter. Thanks for letting me tag along Pads," said a very smug feminine voice.

Cerridwen Eris Halliwell took a nice long picture of the look on James and Lily's faces upon seeing her. She was wearing Slytherin colors just to insure they knew where she stood.

"Consider this payback for leaving us in hell on Earth for the past thirteen years," said Cerri flatly, "Maybe if either of you had bothered to actually do your job as parents you might still have a daughter."

* * *

><p>The first Dumbledore knew of trouble was when wizards bearing the crest of the International Confederation of Wizards came to Hogwarts midway during dinner with a warrant.<p>

Now, Dumbledore thought he could smooth things over with whoever had angered the ICW. At least, as long as it wasn't the idiot woman the Ministry had saddled them with. Umbridge grated on everyone's nerves.

That illusion lasted right up until he noticed his own brother waiting behind the ICW members with a camera and a rather gleeful look on his face.

"Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, we have a warrant for your arrest. Your membership as part of the ICW is under suspension pending the investigation," said the man flatly.

"On what grounds?"

"The charges are: multiple counts of child endangerment, multiple counts of fraud, one count attempted line theft via a fake marriage contract..." the man began to list. With each charge the teachers grew more shocked and Umbridge grew more and more gleeful.

"May I ask who filed charges?"

"The victim is one Cerridwen Halliwell and one Sirius Black."

"I was unaware that the Halliwells had a grudge against me," said Dumbledore frowning. Why would such a prestigious clan come after him like this?

"Perhaps you would know Cerridwen better as Eris Potter. She was legally adopted into the clan shortly after being taken in by her cousins. As it stands, she was less than pleased that you attempted to force her into a tournament she would have been ineligible for to begin with because of her age. We were also told to inform you that one Petunia Dursley has filed charges against you in the muggle world for failure to pay child support. The muggle authorities are planning to write up their own warrant for that charge," said the official blandly.

And hadn't that made Petunia happy. In exchange for keeping her mouth shut about her feeling towards magic and her sister, she got to see Dumbledore arrested because he had so foolishly dumped Eris on them without any warning and then failed to insure they would receive support for the girl, which was part of the reason they had hated her presence in the house.

Payback was a bitch and revenge was a dished best served cold. Something Cerridwen was pleased she would be experiencing.

It was about time someone took note of her yearly 'adventures' in the death trap known as Hogwarts.


	5. Chapter 5

If Dumbledore was shocked by the charges filed against him, it was nothing compared to the sight that greeted him when he entered the ICW.

James and Lily Potter, alive and in the flesh.

"What dark magic is this!?"

"Not magic. Try complete stupidity," said Sirius blithely.

"Apparently James and Lily faked their deaths and didn't have the common sense to check that their first born was alright when they left England," said Remus coldly.

Finding out his best friends had faked their deaths and left two of the people who had trusted them in a living hell had come as a hard blow. Sirius had rotted in a prison and his cub had been little more than a slave at the hands of her 'aunt'.

"Where is Ms. Potter?" asked Dumbledore. He hoped he could convince the girl to drop her charges against him.

"Talking to her brothers and sister. She wants nothing to do with you except for insuring you get the punishment you rightly deserve. She was pissed when she found out her 'parents' were in fact alive and living the high life in Canada while she was stuck with Petunia," said Sirius flatly.

* * *

><p>Rose, Derrick and Harry were both in awe and totally terrified of their oldest sister. For one thing, they had been completely unaware that Eris was in fact the girl-who-lived. Lily and James had been home-tutoring their children to further insure no one knew they were alive. However Eris was nothing like their parents. In fact while she was a former Gryffindor, she had only shown her Slytherin side...which their parents had called the 'epitome' of evil.<p>

Cerridwen was still coming to terms that she had _siblings_. Well, outside of her sisters anyway.

"So...what's Hogwarts like?"

"In a word? Pointless. Snape is so biased towards anyone not a Slytherin that the potions program is a nightmare, Binns is useless, McGonagall is overworked, most of the classes outside of herbology are so out of date it's not even funny, and the food is geared towards a freaking heart attack. Frankly you'd be better off in another school. Not to mention the fact it's so steeped in prejudice that they don't even allow anyone other than _wizards_ into the school. I heard from Remus he only got in because he was originally a pure blood and his name had been down but never taken off."

The siblings had heard about Remus and Sirius for years. Had heard how disappointed their parents became that they couldn't tell anyone they were alive. So they were quite shocked to see the disappointment and anger coming from the last two living Marauders.

"Why was Uncle Sirius so angry at mom and dad?" asked Harry.

"I'm angry at them for just leaving me behind to deal with Dumbledore's idea of protection. They're furious because thanks to the fact that James and Lily went into hiding without telling anyone they were alive, Sirius went to Azkaban for twelve years for their 'murder'. If they had bothered to pick up a newspaper or let you go to a magical school they would have known what happened," said Cerri flatly.

The only reason she was being so nice was because these kids couldn't help who their parents were. They were completely innocent in James and Lily's complete and utter stupidity. And Halliwells protected innocents.

Which was why she was going to arrange for them to attend Magic School rather than Hogwarts in order to spare them the stigma of the Potter's actions. The last thing she would every want to do was subject her poor younger siblings to the hellish Hogwarts rumor mill. She had enough of that for the first two years, especially after the parselmouth incident.

Besides, it would be better for them to be away from Snape once he found out Lily was alive. She was still in disbelief he had a crush on her mother, though it explained a _lot._

"Um... Eris? How come you hate mom and dad?" asked Derrick.

"Have you ever met our Aunt Petunia? Lily's older sister?" she asked them.

She knew the answer was no, so they shook their heads.

"Petunia is a muggle, and she hates magic so much that she forbids the word from even being spoken in her house. I was pretty much dumped on her and her husband courtesy of Dumbledore, and they weren't exactly thrilled to have a witch in the house so they took it out on me. To make matters worse Dudley, who is Petunia's only son, is a fat bully who loved picking on his younger cousin. I'm just glad I found about Penny and that she was willing to adopt me."

"Is it really a bad thing to be a Wiccan?" asked Rose.

"The Wiccan creed is 'Harm none and do what ye will'. Basically they don't care how you use magic, so long as it doesn't hurt yourself or others. Take werewolves for example. So long as they don't purposely infect others, Wiccans could care less if their friends or family turn furry once a month. Or parseltongue. It's a harmless Green magic, yet Europe considers anyone who has it evil."

"Snakes are creepy," said Rose shuddering.

"They're irredeemable perverts, but so is Sirius and he's perfectly harmless. Just because a few Evil wizards used them as symbols does not automatically make them evil. If they were, then why are they used often on mundane ambulances?" she asked them.

They had no answer to that. They had seen a few ambulances, and several of them had a snake on the side. If snakes really were evil, then why use them on vehicles meant to carry the sick and dying?

"Ms. Halliwell? You're wanted on the stand."

"Who was sent up first?" she asked.

"Dumbledore, if only because we plan to parade the Potter adults around Diagon first to insure that the shock really sets in," came the immediately reply.

It was also so Dumbledore couldn't try to get the Potters on lesser charges. If he was convicted first, then his standing in the ICW would be dismissed and he would be just another criminal, past glory be damned.

As it turned out, his twin brother was absolutely _thrilled_ someone was finally calling his brother out for his idiotic ideas of the 'greater good' being more important than the individual.

Cerri went out to the witness stand and did not even give Dumbledore a single glance. The most they did was draw out memories, give her veritaserum and make her swear a blood oath that she had told nothing but the truth.

The evidence was damning, and the best part was that they would be reusing the memories of Petunia Dursley against the Potters, so Cerri wouldn't have to watch them twice. They also submitted reports from a randomly selected healer who had to have a translator with them to be understood. She did not know Cerridwen Halliwell, had no connections outside of being a healer in the ICW for cases like this. As a result, her unbiased report was almost as damning as the memories were.

Then came the worst pieces of evidence against Dumbledore.

Madam Maxime presented memories of the selection and the fact that when the fire in the Goblet went out, the names that weren't selected were left behind. Including one Eris Potter, with no school listed. They also brought out a copy of the contract between the Weasly clan and Eris.

It took less than fifteen minutes.

Dumbledore's tenure as a member of the ICW was thrown out and he was convicted of all charges. He would have to do some fast talking to even remain as Hogwart's headmaster, let alone remain a free man. The very best he could hope for was that they would let him live with his brother. The worst was that he was sentenced to the ICW prison next to his ex-lover Grindlewald.

Cerridwen didn't stay in the court to watch the Potters. She didn't want to hear their excuses.

"So...what are you going to do about them?" asked Penny. She was of course referring to Cerri's siblings.

"I was thinking of seeing if we could get them into Magic School. They haven't been too badly poisoned against non-humans and it would keep them safe from England's reaction to the Potters. What they do with their life is entirely up to them. As far as I'm concerned, Prue, Piper and Phoebe are my sisters," said Cerri firmly.

Sirius walked out of the courtroom tired and looking more his age than ever.

"Convicted, but put on parole. The ICW agreed with your suggestion to enroll the trio into Magic School, since they're just as aware of England's rumor mills. The last thing they want to do is sentence innocents to that viper pit," he said.

He still couldn't believe James had done that to him. To Cerri.

"How did they react to the memories?"

"Lily broke down in horror, and James almost went into shock. It was a miracle they didn't faint. About the only saving grace is that they get to keep their children, but they will have to face the reaction of the English society as punishment," said Remus, "They are also not to have contact with Cerri since she made it clear she was not their daughter in any way shape or form. Not unless she approaches them first."

"And on the mundane side?" asked Penny.

"Front page of tomorrow's paper," said Sirius, handing her an English newspaper.

Penny looked satisfied. It was rather appropriate that the newspapers had run with the headline of: _**Couple abandons daughter to abusive aunt! Found living in Canada, Charges of Abandonment and failure to pay for Child's Care to be filed!**_

On it was a picture of a horrified Lily and James. The three siblings were not mentioned at all. There was also a picture of Dumbledore and his part in the mess.

"Here's the real kicker. Because Albus was supposed to be keeping the English education up-to-date and the Minister tried to force an American citizen to return to England, they ICW is doing a complete audit of Europe's magical society. And they aren't going to let the English stonewall them anymore," said Sirius evilly.

"It's about bloody time," said Cerri.

* * *

><p>Rose, Derrick and Harry were all very taken aback by Magic School. Mostly because they had become very used to hiding any evidence of magic from people, and they were now encouraged to use it in public. To the amusement of the teachers, they also followed Cerri like ducklings because she was the only familiar face they knew they could trust.<p>

Cerri was just glad they didn't have any active Whitelighter abilities, as it gave her time to herself.

"Wow. So your mom and dad were alive?" said Phoebe.

"In Canada. Sirius was the one to deliver the court order, and now they're on parole. They also have to explain to their friends why they went into hiding without telling anyone. Sirius is still fairly pissed about that," said Cerri.

Phoebe winced. The girls viewed Sirius as a silly uncle, but one who would always help when they needed it. They knew he had been jailed illegally without even a trial because the English thought he had caused his best friend's death.

Finding out his friend was alive and in hiding had made him really angry.

All three of the sisters had immediately hugged Cerri and Sirius because they were well loved. It had helped their initial reaction of anger and betrayal. Having Remus appear a week after Sirius begging to be forgiven for ever doubting him had also helped immensely.

Phoebe hugged her baby sister. Cerri had been so hurt learning her parents had been alive this whole time and had done nothing to protect her.

"So what happens now?"

"For starters I'm still your baby sister. That doesn't change. But now we'll be stuck babysitting the trio while those people serve out their punishment. They're already enrolled in my second school to keep them from dealing with the outcry England's sure to have finding out my parents are alive. The only difference is that now I have extra cousins or siblings, depending on how things go."

Phoebe hugged Cerri tighter. Then she took on a mischievous smirk.

"How about a different topic. Have you seen the way Piper's been lusting after your tutor Leo?"

Cerri grinned evilly.

"Love at first sight," grinned Cerri.

Actually, when Penny first noticed it she had been concerned. Half-breed children of White Lighters were almost expressively forbidden. The fact Piper was showing such obvious interest in Leo worried her, and she didn't want her granddaughter's heart broken.

That is, until Sirius decided to see why Piper showed so much interest and learned there was in fact a soul bond between them that was just waiting to wake up. The attraction Piper felt was in fact that bond being woken up early.

Probably why someone like Leo was chosen to protect the Charmed Ones, despite his relatively young age.

If there was a full soul bond, then there was nothing the Elders could do about the fact that Leo and Piper would eventually date. Penny's only comment was that she wanted Leo to wait before he went anywhere beyond small displays of affection. Piper was barely seventeen after all. Leo understood her concern and agreed not to act on it until Piper was old enough to drink...or better yet her powers were unsealed.

Until then he would remain Cerri's teacher in her abilities.


	6. Chapter 6

Leo looked at Cerri with a pleased expression. Despite the rocky start to her powers, she was actually a very dedicated student. Once he told her what to look for in terms of powers, it took little time to figure out what she could and couldn't do.

She could orb, shield, heal, and strangely enough she had some empathy. But the biggest issue always happened when she had to go with Leo to the Council meetings as his apprentice. Because of her situation it was always a hit-or-miss with the other White Lighters.

Most of whom did not like Cerri because she was allowed to see her family and didn't gain her powers the same way they did.

Cerri ignored them unless Leo nudged her as a way of discreetly saying she had to talk to them.

"I am impressed. I've never met anyone who's learned how to use their powers in less than five years," said Leo. And he meant it.

Cerri was about to hit her majority at seventeen. During that time she had come to a tentative truce with her 'siblings' from her birth parents. In her mind, the Halliwells were more of a family than the Potters ever were. She could barely stand to be in the same room as Lily or James.

The siblings however, still hung around Cerri the most, as she was the only older student who would let them sit with them during 'dinner'. While they had made several new friends at Magic School, the sad fact was that their parent's actions had marred potential friendships with anyone who knew Cerri.

"It helps that I have a reason to learn them. Plus this way I don't have to worry about losing my cloak," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"Um... I might have accidentally used a disillusionment charm to avoid my birth mother two days ago?"

"Show me," said Leo. So Cerri concentrated on being invisible. Leo groaned.

"When you awakened your White Lighter heritage it went all out. Though this might explain why it effected your magic so much," said Leo rubbing his forehead.

"Another one?" she said in dismay.

"Apparently, of course this could mean you won't develop many Wiccan powers once the girls are unsealed. Any idea when they're supposed to have those awakened?" asked Leo.

It was very trying keeping Piper at arm's length and teaching Cerri on the side how to use her powers. He could not wait until he could talk to her in her home about their powers without having to worry about the girls freaking out too early. Leo was still the guardian of the Charmed Ones, but once his possible relationship with Piper finally took off it was likely they would assign someone more impartial. He was already treading on thin ice because he was Cerri's teacher.

"From what I understand, Penny wants them to remain in the dark as long as possible. Meaning not until they're all full adults and she's gone," said Cerri sadly.

Leo winced. Out of the four of them, Cerri was closer to the Halliwell matron than even her biological grandchildren. Probably because she didn't have to hide what she was from her.

"So in a few more years then," he said. He could see souls, and Penny's was just five or ten shy of going out. But he wasn't going to break that to Cerri.

"On an unrelated note, I need someone to talk to the twins about how to behave around girls. I don't trust James, Sirius is a monumental child, Remus is too busy keeping Sirius in line, and you're the only one I would trust not to give them any bad advice," said Cerri bluntly.

Leo ran that through his head and winced. He could see where she was coming from. Rose had been given the talk by both Lily and Penny who had come to a sort of agreement when it came to Cerri. And unfortunately the number of men she trusted came up rather short compared to the females. Mostly because the males she usually associated with in her were horny teenagers, an idiot godfather, an exasperated werewolf...and Leo. James wasn't even considered.

Which meant the only male role model she looked up to was Leo. He was like a big brother figure she could talk to about anything. Hence why she had asked him to speak to her brothers. He was the only one she trusted to do it right.

"So, what are your plans for graduation from Magic School?" asked Leo, changing yet another uncomfortable subject.

"Grams said that one of her friends was planning on selling his shop. It's one for those New Age type people who think that being Wiccan is 'cool' and for genuine practitioners. Apparently his kids are sick of the Occult things he brings home, so he's willing to sell it to someone who actually _knows_ what they're doing and wouldn't ruin the place. Plus it's part of an open two-story building so I can do whatever I want with the second floor," said Cerri.

"Won't the mortals be upset about a seventeen-year-old running an occult shop?"

Cerri smirked.

"He's willing to take me on as an apprentice until I hit eighteen or graduate high school. Mundanes won't think twice after I get my diploma, and it'll give me a chance to learn how to run a shop before I buy it. I'm actually thinking of converting the second floor into a radio station. There's very few stations I can stand to listen to at night," said Cerri frowning.

She was actually part of the broadcasting club, and everyone loved her. Chances were she would be club president next year.

Leo chuckled. He had heard some of her broadcasts from the school-run station and they were quite whitty.

"What would you call it?"

"HEXX," said Cerri without any hesitation. She had given some thought about what she would call her station, and it was the only one that amused her the most.

"HEXX?" said Leo.

"Welcome to the HEXX station, for the double Hexx brigade," said Cerri with a straight face. It took Leo a moment to run that through before he started laughing.

Calling it the 'double hex' brigade was a clever way of saying it was for women. Especially since it play on a pun some used to describe a group of close female friends as 'the double X brigade'. It proved Cerri actually paid attention during high school biology class as everyone knew women had two 'X' chromosomes while men had an 'XY'.

"It's also a play on the fact it's run above an occult shop, since some spells are called 'hexes'," she said grinning.

Leo couldn't help his snort. He could see exactly where this would lead and he was interested to watch how others would react to Cerri's unique brand of humor on the radio.

One of her favorites was _"Welcome to the Witching Hour with your host Eris, the Mistress of Chaos."_

That had gotten quite a few of her friends in the club to crack up, because she always had people laughing when she was on air.

"If you did make a radio station, who would you have with you as Hosts?"

"Phoebe, Piper and possibly Luna," said Cerri immediately.

Luna being, of course, a former Ravenclaw who had transferred shortly after Cerri started Magic School. Apparently she was half faerie, and was sick and tired of the mocking she received at Hogwarts.

She was a frequent visitor of the Halliwell manor. Partly because she had quickly befriended Cerri with her oddness but mostly because Penny had taken her under her wing upon learning the only parent in the house was the girl's father, who had been driven insane because of the death of his wife due to a spell accident.

Luna had been thrilled to have such a pleasant female role model to look up to, and that Cerri had so quickly become friends with her.

Prue and Piper were just happy that the girls kept it quiet whenever they had sleepovers. Phoebe could be quite loud when she got excited.

(Actually Cerri and Luna just silenced the room to avoid disturbing everyone else.)

"I can see Phoebe and Luna, but why Piper?"

"Cooking tips," was Cerri's immediate reply.

Plus it would give Piper a chance to relax, sharing recipes over the radio with random women. Maybe if it really took off she could rope Prue in to talk about random cultural facts people might find interesting.

"Well it's not like you have anything better to do with the gold you filched from the Potter accounts," snorted Leo.

James would have been pissed, but even he admitted that it was his own fault. Especially once the public outcry over the fact they all but abandoned their daughter to the Dark Lord and had been living in Canada came out. They were avoiding England even more like the plague.

Though it was nothing to people's reactions to finding out how far James had gone to keep the secret. Learning he had given up the position as head of the Potter family to his heir had been very shocking for the pure bloods. Most of which were wondering how he planned to keep it from backfiring if and when they originally planned to come out about the truth.

Leo and Cerri discussed what sort of music she would have playing on her station while he dropped her off at Magic School for the night. He was somewhat surprised she planned to play things like Mozart for the late-night crowd, since she was a fan of the classical stuff. Apparently the school had a strict set of songs they were allowed to play (added to twice a year at least) and she had been disappointed that there wasn't anything classical.

Leo also took the boys aside for an hour during their break to give them some advice...and they were glad Cerri had him do it instead of James. Their father had recently given them the 'Talk' and along with it some advice. Which Lily had immediately warned them was more liable to get them slapped by girls than to get any as dates. Sirius was out of the question and Remus? They were pretty sure he batted for the other team.

Leo however was a safe zone for questions.

* * *

><p>"A radio station?" said Prue.<p>

"One where we could take turns as the DJ. I could take the late night segment, Phoebe could handle the romance department, Piper does cooking and you could sub occasionally and share interesting facts of cultural history most people don't know about. Luna could even act as a sub for us surprising everyone with her open oddness," said Cerri.

"What would you call it?" asked Phoebe, openly interested. She had joined the broadcast club as a show of solidarity with Cerri and had actually enjoyed it.

"Welcome to HEXX radio, the station of for the double HEXX brigade!" said Cerri with a straight face.

Phoebe caught onto the joke first because she burst out laughing. Even Prue was smiling from amusement.

"It suits you, and it's somewhat catchy. What would be the biggest attraction though?"

"Actually I'm still debating that one."

"Like?" said Prue.

"Hexx Walk of Shame," said Cerri.

"Walk of Shame?" said Prue.

"A randomly selected person known to be a cheater who breaks the hearts of those they date would be chosen. It's basically a warning out for lonely singles on who to avoid, and it would give Sirius something to do when he's bored. Only people with a history of cheating on their other halves would be picked and we would back up everything with proof. Maybe call in a few of their victims so they can tell everyone some of the things they try to use to snare their next target so they can keep from hurting others."

Prue frowned.

"While I like the idea that you would at least back it up with actual proof, I don't think targeting people wold be a good idea starting out. Maybe if this idea of yours actually works out for five years and has a decent sized fan base first. That way you'll have actual support when you start it up and a list of people to contact," said Prue.

If there was one thing Cerri hated, it was liars and cheaters. The fact she would target people who were known to sneak around with others while dating someone else was something she would have expected of her sister. Especially since she very nearly became one of those victims last year when a jock asked her out.

She gave him a non-answer before digging into his past. It was a good thing she did before agreeing, because Phoebe found out the guy had gotten another girl pregnant and refused to pay any child support. His parents had paid the girl off before it became known to the school so she moved away.

Cerri had no desire to date a deadbeat. She slapped him and told him to try someone who would be interested in an idiot.

Cerri hummed. That actually sounded like a better idea, plus it would mean people would take her warning seriously.

"So you agree with my idea?" she asked Prue.

"You have a reasonable idea of how to work a radio station and knowing you it's going to be more of a side hobby for after you're done with your new part time job at that occult shop. And it gives Phoebe some real-life skills she could actually _use_," said Prue pointedly. It had always been a bit of a sore point for the older sister that she had practically raised the other two after their mother died.

As a side effect she used to baby Phoebe until Cerri came into their lives. Cerri certainly didn't care if Prue babied her. Phoebe rolled her eyes.

Sure, she didn't really have a career in mind, but working at a radio station with Luna to keep her company sounded more interesting than getting a boring nine-to-five job.

Cerri beamed at her sister.

"Besides, at least I know you'll have fun with it, for as long as it lasts. What sort of music do you plan on playing?"

Cerri grinned.

"Classical, among other things."

Prue grinned.

"San Francisco could use some more classical stations. I'm guessing you plan to make it a variety hour, emphasis on the variety?"

Cerri nodded.

"Everything except the overly religious and that new rap and hip-hop genre. I don't see what everyone likes about it."

"Well if this does take off I might consider coming on. Only as a substitute mind you."

"I'll do the news," said Luna with a chirp. The sisters giggled. Luna was an odd platypus, but a great friend.


	7. Chapter 7

_Five years later..._

She flipped a switch, starting up the intro to Disney's _Nightmare Before Christmas_, which was how she usually announced herself on the radio. It was just the first notes until the singing started, but people got a kick out of it.

"Welcome to the Witching Hour with your host, the Mistress of Chaos...ERIS!"

Cerri's idea for a radio station had taken off like a hit. Probably because she knew how to get people's attention. It wasn't uncommon for the women of San Francisco to tune into the station on their breaks.

But what she was most proud of was the HEXX Wall of Shame.

Once a week she would randomly select some sleazebag who hurt others and then give them the 'HEXX WALK OF SHAME'. More than one jerk who broke hearts was forced to leave town because of her Wall.

She had their attempts to sue her for defamation of character stapled to their pictures...along with the amount she got back because of the fact she had said nothing that wasn't true.

Sirius still cracked up that his best client for his Private Detective and Bounty firm was in fact his goddaughter trying to keep from being arrested. Cerri would tell him who her next victim was, and he would investigate to see if they actually deserved to be on the Wall. If the answer was 'yes', Cerri would give out a description, their bio and then bring out a few of their exes. It helped their victims to vent and hopefully start them on the path away from the creeps.

The cops actually listened to the walk of shame because the number of people they arrested for stalking went down to the single digits once the Wall of Shame was put up. Apparently the fact someone was willing to hear their story and air it to shame the person who broke their hearts so callously was all they really needed.

The cops might not exactly approve of the thing, but they were glad it lightened their already heavy work load.

"I have exciting news for our listeners tonight. In a few short days our own favorite Love Doctor, the Fabulous Phoebe will be returning to HEXX!" said Cerri grinning.

Piper and Cerri had been keeping the fact Phoebe was coming home from Prue. That would be fun.

Phoebe had been a bigger hit on her segment than she had thought. Women all over the city called Phoebe for advice on love, and surprisingly she got some great reviews. Phoebe was always a total romantic at heart.

She was the first to pick up on the subtle tension between Piper and Leo.

And since it was unlikely she would find a job she would enjoy as much as she had working at the station, Cerri had immediately offered her old position as the HEXX's own personal cupid. Phoebe agreed immediately, as it would mean she wouldn't have to go hunting for a new job. Besides, it also meant she got to help around the shop, since she was almost as into the occult as Cerri still was.

"And to celebrate her return to HEXX, we'll be starting a new segment to counter our infamous Wall of Shame! We hope our lonely singles out there will enjoy the HEXX Wall of Hopefuls! We'll be discussing some lucky single out in the San Francisco area who will be waiting at a preselected club or bar for any other lonely hopefuls out there who are interested. As always, the HEXX Brigade promise that all information is backed up by our favorite private detectives, the Karma Collectors! When you want to bring karma's attention to a cheating lover or a deadbeat parent, come visit the Karma Collectors!"

Cerri's idea for the name had certainly stuck, and the idea of bringing karmic justice to people who left their children with another parent or proving that someone was cheating on their lover was something that appealed to Sirius. His office was the one recommended the most when it came to stuff like that.

* * *

><p>"So what's the verdict?" asked Cerri.<p>

Leo, who was the resident fix-it master (according to Sirius) was up on a ladder trying to find out why the chandelier wasn't working properly. Because he had been a friend of the family for so long, Cerri had given him her spare key to the house so Prue wouldn't have to rush home from work to meet him.

"I have no idea. The circuits are fine and the fuse isn't blown. This should be working..." said Leo.

"And a simple repairing charm didn't work either," said Cerri frowning.

She had tried that the first thing, and for some reason she had felt an unusual resistance.

"Piper got something in the mail," said Leo.

Cerri took one look at the name and grimaced.

"I really wish she would dump that guy. He gives me a really bad vibe."

Jeremy was Piper's current boyfriend...mostly because Leo always went on 'trips' once forewarned that she was planning to ask him out. Soul bond between them or not, there was no way Leo was going to date her until after they found something to keep the Elders from coming after them both.

Like say directing their anger towards someone who deserved it?

Cerri gave him a grin.

"I know what you're thinking and I sincerely doubt Voldemort would ever be stupid enough to take up Wiccan magic," said Cerri, rolling her eyes.

"Maybe if we convinced him it was the fact you got yourself blood adopted into the Warren line..." said Leo.

Cerri snorted. She knew full well why Leo was reluctant to date her sister. He was afraid the Elders would remove his powers when they would need them later, despite the fact Cerri was a full-trained White Lighter now and could handle herself.

"Keep dreaming Leo," said Cerri with a laugh.

"I hear Phoebe's coming home. Got tired of New York?" he said, getting down from the ladder.

"I'm not so sure. It's been six months since..." said Cerri, looking at the photo on the mantle.

Behind the simple frame was a picture of Penny, the girls, and the two 'Uncles' Remus and Sirius. Cerri was in her graduation robes, as she had finally finished high school. During the party her 'boss' handed her a envelope...inside of which was the deed and titles to the store. It had officially been transferred to her.

He still kept in touch, but he was enjoying retirement.

Out of all of them, Penny's death had hit Cerri and Phoebe the hardest.

It was the hospital where Piper met Jeremy, and ever since then she had to keep him away from Cerri, who practically hissed at him anytime he came near the house.

Something about the guy gave her a really bad vibe, and Cerri knew to trust her instincts.

"Cerri?" Prue called out. She had come home early because Roger was being an ass.

He was still pissed that not only had Prue thrown his engagement ring back at him for his callous comments when Penny was dying, but also because when Cerri heard some of the things he had the gall to say about Penny, she had put him on the short list of the HEXX Wall of Shame.

Prue had avoided being on the radio talking about Roger, but she had directed Cerri to four of his other ex-girlfriends who got sick of his behavior. Because of how quickly HEXX had grown in popularity, Roger had to go out of town to get any dates. The only women who would even consider him otherwise were not very intelligent and were limited to being eye-candy.

"In here! Leo's here too!" said Cerri from the kitchen.

"Hey Leo. Any luck with the lights?"

"Sorry. The circuits look fine and the fuse is still in good condition. It _should_ be working," said Leo apologetically.

"Well at least it's cheaper than trying to call an electrician who might lie," said Prue.

After the last time she tried to outsource maintenance work for the house, they had to pay extra just to fix what little the guy _had_ done because he was a scam artist.

Ever since they stuck with someone they knew they could trust... I/E Leo since at least he was honest. If he couldn't handle it, then he would tell them upfront or at least get a book to try and figure it out first.

Prue looked upstairs.

"Can you see if you can get the attic door open? Maybe the problems up there," said Prue.

Leo winced.

"Yeah, that door's not going to open. I've tried it before and I think something's against the door...or maybe the lock's jammed."

Leo knew why that door wouldn't open. Hell, Cerri _knew. _It was enchanted not to open until the girls could handle the powers. He had a suspicion Phoebe's return after Penny's death would be the catalyst to breaking that spell. And Cerri planned to be right next to her when she read that spell.

"What is that?" asked Cerri.

"Our old spirit board. If you want you can take it with you to the shop and put it up," said Prue, seeing what Cerri had picked up. Then she turned to face Cerri with an annoyed expression on her face.

"What?"

"What exactly did you mean when you said the 'Fabulous Phoebe' would be returning to HEXX?" she said.

Cerri and Leo both winced.

"She's coming back, isn't she?" said Prue annoyed.

"Apparently there was some falling out in New York. We didn't tell you because we were afraid you'd change the locks or something..." muttered Cerri.

Prue had been pissed as hell when Phoebe had moved to New York less than a week after their grandmother was dead and buried. She hadn't spoken to her sister since.

It also hadn't helped that Roger claimed Phoebe tried to seduce him. The only reason Prue didn't believe him was because one of his ex-girlfriends had a sister as well, and he had tried the same thing to get her more angry at her sister than at him because he had been a total ass that month.

It had backfired spectacularly and had caused the girl to immediately break up with him.

"Prue?" Piper called from the door. She stopped the second she saw the annoyed expression on her face and the guilty ones on Leo and Cerri.

"She found out?"

"She was listening to the announcement Phoebe would be returning to HEXX in a few days," said Cerri embarrassed.

Piper winced. Still, at least now she didn't have to hide it.

"So why is Phoebe moving back?"

"Someone broke into her apartment last week and she nearly walked in on it. She was so freaked out she asked if she could come home," said Piper.

Prue's annoyed expression softened a bit.

"Well at least now you have an excuse to test that recipe of yours before you try it out with that arrogant chef. I still say you should have let me buy that club he's in charge of," said Cerri, changing the subject.

"I'm a chef, not an entrepreneur like you Cerri."

"Uh-huh. Piper, we have him as a candidate for the Wall of Shame. His accents totally fake, the guy has another restaurant and rumor has it he's planning to dump that club on someone who looks like they can handle it to make more money," said Cerri.

Piper winced.

"Tell you what. If he dumps **Quake** on you, I'll come help you keep the books straight. And once you get a handle on it, we'll buy it out from under him and then put his ass on the Wall of Shame," said Cerri.

Phoebe grabbed her stuff from the cab and went in. The weather was absolutely horrible!

At least she was able to pay the driver without having to ask Prue.

"Phoebe! Welcome home!" said Piper, hugging her sister.

"Phoebs!" said Cerri, squishing her.

Phoebe took one look at Prue and then at Cerri.

"She found out didn't she?"

"Overheard the announcement. If I had known she was listening..."

"You still would have done it!" said Phoebe laughing.

"Yeah, but I would have had more fun!" said Cerri giggling.

"So did I miss anything?"

"Aside from Piper's current sketchy boyfriend trying to worm his way into the house, not much."

"Hey! Jeremy is perfectly nice!" said Piper.

"Piper, Prue's ex-boyfriend Andy came into the shop before I closed up asking about an athame. Someone's been killing my customers recently with a ritual dagger and I know Jeremy owns one because I've seen the hilt under his jacket," said Cerri flatly.

The second their powers were unbound, she was upgrading the damn wards. No way was Jeremy getting into the house on her watch.

"Andy's back?" said Prue.

"He's back and working at the department as an Inspector. Sirius sent him my way because Andy paid him a visit first to introduce himself."

"Anything else new?" asked Phoebe.

"Roger's on the Wall of Shame."

"Good riddance," said Phoebe immediately. She had been ticked when she found out Roger's accusation she had tried to seduce him. "Hey is that our old spirit board?"

"Not tonight. Best time to do that is tomorrow on a full moon," said Cerri immediately.


	8. Chapter 8

It was the night of the full moon, and it was pouring down rain. Cerri clutched her mug of hot cocoa like a life line.

All the signs were pointing to tonight. Tonight was the night that the sisters would unlock the Power of Three and she could finally quit hiding her powers from the others. Phoebe nearly shrieked in her ear when the pointer started moving on it's own.

Cerri moved a little away from her to avoid being deafened.

"Ow," said Cerri in complaint.

"It moved again!" said Phoebe.

"A-T-T-I..." said Cerri...and privately thought _'And here comes "C"'_

"Attic?" said Phoebe.

Without warning the electricity went out.

"I'll grab the flashlight, you two check the breaker box in the cellar," said Cerri.

"Should we split up?" asked Prue.

"Cerri and I can check the attic," said Phoebe.

"No! Every time someone splits up, one group always dies!" said Piper freaking out.

"Piper, the doors and windows are locked, the house is secured with an alarm that will go off if anyone tries to break in, and it's not like we can't each take a knife from the kitchen in case someone _does_ break in," said Cerri sensibly.

"Or we could just go over to Uncle Sirius' house and ask him to stick around until the power comes back on. He does still live a few doors away right?" said Phoebe.

"Hang on, I have a cell phone," said Cerri.

Actually it was a mirror phone, but it was disguised as a cell. A few minutes later Sirius came over.

"So Piper freaked out over a little lightning?" joked Sirius.

"That and the mass murderer targeting my customers," deadpanned Cerri.

"I'll come with them...in case of break ins," said Sirius with a straight face.

Piper was beginning to feel a little silly over freaking out.

Phoebe and Cerri went upstairs while the rest went to check the circuit breaker. Without any explanation the attic door finally opened since the girl's powers were sealed. Cerri could feel the Magic pointing Phoebe to where Cerri had put the Book last.

Phoebe removed it from the trunk and read the title from the first page.

"The Book of Shadows..." said Phoebe.

Cerri waited until she found the page with the spell to awaken the powers. Sitting next to her, she read aloud with Phoebe the incantation to unseal their powers.

"_Hear now the words of the Witches_

_The secrets we hid in the night_

_The oldest of Gods are invoked here_

_The great work of Magic is sought_

_In this night and in this hour_

_I call upon the Ancient Power_

_Bring your powers to we sisters three_

_We want the power_

_Give us the power."_

Cerri could feel the magic gathering from the nexus below as the Power of Three was finally unbound. Because she had been next to Phoebe when she cast the unbinding spell, some of it bleed through into her, adding the Warren family magic into her core.

She might have been blood adopted into the family, but the odds of her receiving any of the powers Melinda Warren had were small...unless she cast the unbinding spell with one of the Three.

Prue and Piper came up, having finished with the basement. Sirius stuck around until the power came back on, if only to make Piper feel better.

"What is that?" said Prue.

"It's the Book of Shadows. A powerful Wiccan tome that belongs to the Warren clan," said Cerri.

"A _what_?" said Prue.

"You'll understand soon enough. Better to let it settle before I explain things. Anyway, I don't know about you, but rain always makes me sleepy," yawned Cerri.

* * *

><p>"So what exactly was that last night?" asked Phoebe once they got to the store.<p>

"That page you found was for an unbinding spell. As long as you were unaware of magic, you were safe from anything hunting you. I guess Magic thought it was time to wake you three up," said Cerri.

"You knew?"

Cerri grinned, made sure there wasn't anyone outside, and then proceeded to do a credible recreation of the "Sorcerer's Apprentice" as everything got set up for the day.

"The Warren clan is a long line of Pure bloods...and it just so happens Grams married one of my uncles on James' side. I had to hide my magic from you because it was the only way to keep you and the others from waking prematurely," explained Cerri.

Phoebe was practically vibrating where she stood.

"Yes, I can tell you more. But first we should wait until the powers settle into you three. Knowing you, little miss Empath, you got the power of Sight," said Cerri grinning.

"Empath?"

Cerri handed her some tea.

"Okay, while your powers were sealed, your magical core was being actively drained at roughly the same rate as if you were practicing your magic. It was a fail-safe Grams put in so your cores weren't stunted because you had them sealed. But...you all displayed little signs of what powers you resonated with the strongest. For example, you've always been especially perceptive of others and how they're feeling at the time. Empathy is a passive ability and one that could have slipped the binding since most people aren't aware of it. And with how strong yours is I'm guessing you got the Sight."

"What about Piper?"

"Miss Kitchen Witch? She's a natural potionsmistress and I'm betting she can freeze things. Using her Wiccan powers can help with making potions since they don't actively interfere like a witch can. Which leaves Prue with telekinesis."

"Wait, what's the difference between a witch and a Wiccan?"

"Wiccans draw power from the Earth, planets and plants. Witches have a core inside of them that they can use to cast magic from. Now a dark witch is called a Warlock, even if it's a female. Then there's the sorcerers, who create new magic and have massive cores."

"Wow," said Phoebe. This was a lot of information to take in. Cerri grinned at her.

"Don't worry. Sirius and Remus will help me explain this later once the power settle in. Besides, now that your powers are finally awake I can upgrade the bloody wards around the house."

"We have wards?"

"The house sits on a nexus of natural magic. A leyline if you will. Ever since Melinda Warren found it, it has been the duty of each Matriarch of the clan to protect the leyline from evil. The Book of Shadows, which is the family grimoire, is also a source of power. To protect it, Melinda cast a spell on the book so that only one of her line could remove it from the property..." said Cerri, explaining things for Phoebe.

Grams had taught her a lot about the Warren line and it's history so she could pass it on to the girls.

* * *

><p>Piper was freaking out. She had just frozen Chef Moore and then he suddenly started up like nothing had happened. She immediately dialed Cerri's store.<p>

"Pick up, pick up... Cerri? Something really weird just happened!"

"_Calm down Piper. Where are you?"_

"I'm outside the restaurant..."

"_I'm on my lunch break, I'll come and get you. Don't go anywhere... I promise I can explain things okay?"_

"Just hurry!"

Piper hung up and yelped when she saw Jeremy standing right outside. After what just happened, she wasn't in the mood to deal with him.

"Jeremy, I've had a really bad day..."

Cerri drove her convertible to where Piper had gone in for a trial run with that fake French chef. She was talking to Jeremy. Driving up nearby, she rolled down the window.

"Piper, I came to get you for lunch. You still interested?" said Cerri loudly.

Piper looked relieved. For some reason Jeremy was acting strangely today and it was scaring her. Not to mention she had spotted a hilt under his shirt that looked like it belonged to a knife of some sort.

"Coming!" she said quickly. She got into the car before Jeremy could say a word in edgewise.

Cerri glared at the rearview mirror. No way was she letting some stinking warlock hurt her sister.

"I'm having a really off day..." complained Piper.

"Can't be worse than Prue's. She just called and told me Roger stole her exhibit from her. She quit her job," said Cerri.

"What?"

"Personally I wish I could be there when that rat bastard learns she encrypted everything before she left. And that each disk is password protected..." said Cerri evilly.

Prue had suspected Roger was up to something since she saw him with a member of the Board of Directors last week talking about her exhibit. So she asked Cerri what do to in order to make Roger's day even worse without actively sabotaging him. So she password protected everything with a different password, encrypted every single file except for a single notepad page that read in big bold letters "HAPPY HUNTING BASTARD."

Prue was the one who put in all the effort for those pieces. If Roger wanted to keep his new cushy position he would have to either suck up to her on hands and knees, or decrypt and unlock everything himself. Which could take months.

Cerri promised to have a camera ready in the event Roger tried to suck up to Prue. After what he put her through, he totally deserved it.

Cerri parked out back, and Piper went inside. She took a large mug of calming tea (spiked with a calming draught) and once she wasn't freaking out any more she called Prue.

"Okay, I'm closing the shop early and I'll explain everything once we're home," said Cerri.

* * *

><p>"Oh my god... You've turned us into <em>witches<em>?" said Prue horrified. This explained a few things, like what happened to Roger's pen.

"Wiccans. And all Phoebe did was unbind the powers. As long as Grams was alive, the spell on the attic remained active, but now that Phoebe came back, it broke and that allowed one of you to find the book and use the spell," said Cerri.

"Wait, you _knew_?" said Prue.

"The Warren clan is a long line of pure blood Wiccans, starting from the original matriarch Melinda Warren. They changed their name to keep the secret safe," shrugged Sirius.

"What else haven't you told us?" asked Piper.

Cerri and Sirius held up their wands.

"Hi, I'm a witch!" said Cerri.

"Wizard, the technical term for male witch," said Sirius.

Prue and Piper sat down, hard.

"Remus is a werewolf by the way. Just don't tell anyone, because people have the same stigma for anyone unlucky enough to be cursed by one as some do the homosexuals," said Cerri. Phoebe had a look on her face, like she couldn't wait to ask questions.

"I need a drink," said Prue.

Sirius handed her some butterbeer.

"So do you want me to start from the beginning...?"

"YES!" said Piper and Prue.

So Cerri told them. She explained how she found out she was a witch, finding out about Grams marrying her uncle on her birth father's side and taking magic classes at night.

"Let me get this straight. Grams or our mom bound our powers when we were little and Phoebe accidentally woke them up?" said Prue.

"It's less of an accident than you think. That book has a compulsion spell set to go off once Grams died and all three of you were in the same house. She mentioned it when I first started studying from it."

"So what exactly does this mean?" asked Piper.

"First off, you can't use your powers for evil. All Wiccans follow a simple creed. Harm none and do what you will. You can do what you want with your powers as long as you don't harm others with them. Witches and wizards, like Sirius and I, don't have that in our society. And since your powers are free again, we can finally take you three down to the magical alley close to the bay and get you properly trained," said Cerri.

"Wait, properly trained?"

"Grams kept your cores from stunting, but you still need training. Why did you think Leo became my tutor?" said Cerri smirking.

"Leo knows too?!" said Piper.

"He's magical as well, but he's not a wizard. I accidentally unlocked some new powers so he had to train me to avoid misunderstandings. Thing is, the type of magical he is doesn't really like having their...powers...blended with others, especially ones as strong as yours. He's actually likes you Piper, but he's afraid his superiors will do something if he dates you," said Cerri.

"If we can find something to divert their attention when he finally comes out about it, it would go a lot smoother for everyone," said Sirius.

"But I'm dating Jeremy!"

"And I'm almost certain that conniving creep is the one killing my best customers," said Cerri angrily, "Which reminds me. Since we don't have to hide what we can do I want to upgrade the wards."

"I'll go get the books on warding," said Sirius.

* * *

><p>Jeremy was a lot closer than Cerri would have imagined. And he knew the wards were still weak since they hadn't been updated. This was his one chance to get their powers and maybe even some white lighter abilities from that bitch Cerri after all the interference she gave him.<p>

This was likely the only time he would have a chance to get at the Charmed Ones before the wards were brought back to full strength.

The moment he saw Sirius leave, he went up to the door.

Unfortunately it wasn't Piper who answered, but Phoebe.

"CERRI!" she yelled, slamming the door on his face.

Jeremy cursed, but broke down the door anyway. Seeing Piper's face turn to shock and horror was almost worth the trouble Cerri had given him.

"Stay away from my family, _Warlock!_" hissed Cerri.

The knife glinted coldly in the scant light of the house. Cerri stood before her sisters and glared.

"You really think a mere Wiccan can stop me?" he sneered.

"How about a dragon creep?" she challenged.

Jeremy didn't have a chance to process that comment before she shifted. She barely fit in the room and yet made an imposing figure.

He never had a chance to scream before Cerri turned him into ashes.

Thanks to the wards, no one saw the fire.

Sirius waited for the heat to die down before he popped his head into the broken doorway.

"Did I miss something?"

Cerri, who had shifted back to normal after dealing with Jeremy, had a fanged smile. Using her animagus form always gave her dragon fangs for days.

"Just taking out the trash Siri," said Cerri.


	9. Chapter 9

"Woah... what happened here?" asked Leo. He had come to check on the chandelier again.

"Jeremy tried to kill the girls while the wards were still low. Bastard destroyed the door," said Cerri annoyed.

A repairing spell had fixed the damage...mostly...but the wards around the door were shot to hell.

Leo winced. Cerri never swore unless she was really angry.

"How did you deal with him?"

"Cerri turned into a freaking dragon!" said Phoebe.

Leo looked at Cerri.

"You didn't do a full one did you?"

"Leo, you of all people know I would have destroyed the house. I did a tenth of the size and I could barely move. So I charbroiled the son of a bitch."

"I thought the Wiccan meant we couldn't harm anyone with our powers?" said Phoebe.

"Warlocks don't count," said Leo automatically.

"Besides, what I did wasn't Wiccan magic, but Witch magic. Two different things. Believe me, there was an entire seminar about how the two branches can rarely commingle. Unlike Wiccan magic, witch magic doesn't have the same by-laws or rules. It's more of a 'as long as you can power it, you can do whatever you want' kind of deal."

Sirius walked in with more crystals to upgrade the wards with.

"Magicals look down on Wiccans with powers because they consider them lesser people thanks to the rules. The thing is that Wiccans are often more powerful than wizards or witches because they aren't as afraid to mix the bloodlines and they can draw upon the natural Earth energy within limits. Plus there's the fact that it would take something really big for a Wiccan to become dark," said Sirius.

"Basically Jeremy was doomed from the start because he not only targeted the Charmed Ones, but because he royally pissed off a Wiccan-trained witch with enough power to kill him. And the fact he was evil meant I won't lose any sleep over it," said Cerri simply.

"Cerri, when do you want me to look over the shop?" asked Prue.

Since she quit her job, Roger had been pretty much playing merry hell with her reputation. Until she found someplace new to use her skills, Prue was helping out in the shop by dating the magical artifacts and ensuring authenticity.

It saved Cerri hours of time and it made her customers much happier to know someone who knew what they were doing had authenticated it.

Prue found it fascinating how much history magical artifacts had. She was just glad Cerri had something she could do and still bring in money. She hated being out of her job.

"So you came here to check up on the chandelier?" asked Cerri.

"Yeah. Any luck getting it to work?"

"Apparently whatever went on the fritz stopped. Think you could check the wiring anyway just to be sure?" asked Cerri.

"Sure," said Leo, and he went upstairs to check.

"Piper already went into work right?" said Cerri.

Prue nodded amused.

They both started at Piper's yelped.

"Um...she forgot something and had to get something out of her room," said Phoebe sheepishly.

Cerri, Prue and Sirius all started chuckling.

"Bet that makes Piper's day," said Sirius snickering.

"Once she gets over the shock that is," agreed Cerri.

* * *

><p>"I am so sorry about that Piper. I thought you were already at work!" said Leo. He was as surprised as Piper when that door opened.<p>

"Um...why are you here Leo?"

"Cerri wants me to doublecheck the wiring for the chandelier."

"Oh."

Piper tried not to blush. She really liked Leo, always had ever since she started seeing him teaching Cerri. At least now she knew he was like her, even if they had different powers.

Still, after what happened with Jeremy she was going to take a few weeks off the dating scene and hopefully get her life back in order.

Leo awkwardly went into the attic and he immediately noticed that the wards around the door were rather fragile. He would have to warn Cerri about that.

He doublechecked the wiring, and found nothing loose that could cause a problem. Finishing that, he checked the wards so Cerri would know what to shore up.

* * *

><p>"I have such a headache," said Phoebe. Prue and Phoebe were laying on the couch with a bag of ice on their head.<p>

"That's what happens when you insist on doing active magic when your powers were only unsealed three days ago. These are heavy duty wards, why else did you think Sirius and I were doing most of them?" said Cerri. She handed them a few potions to get rid of the worst aches.

Phoebe and Prue were currently dealing with the magically backlash of using more power than they were accustomed to.

"Be glad we didn't show you how to look at the wards directly. That would have given you more than a minor headache," chuckled Sirius.

Mage Sight was useful, but very, very headache inducing. Looking at the Halliwell manor alone gave Sirius a massive migraine that even potions couldn't cure the first time around.

"How can you sit up with the pain?" asked Prue groaning.

"Again, practice."

"It doesn't help that your cores were only recently unbound. Grams put a spell so that they were drained every day like you were casting spells, so they didn't shrink or stagnate, but the fact is none of you are as used to casting as we are. I'm sure once a few weeks go by you'll be more accustomed to it," said Cerri.

The fact they were fully grown Wiccans who had never used their powers before now meant they would have to go through a few 'growing pains' so to speak until their cores started to resettle properly. During that time their powers would be spotty at best in the case of Phoebe, or their control would need a lot of work, like with Piper and Prue.

Cerri had it the easiest of all. She was _used_ to this by now and she never had her core bound and drained at a specific rate like them.

"So...could you teach us that trick with turning into an animal?" asked Phoebe.

Sirius blinked.

"Well considering you three do have magical cores, though they're pretty small considering you're primarily Wiccan based, it is _possible_ to teach you. Just don't expect anything as grand as Cerri's form. You're more likely to end up with something like mine," said Sirius.

"Wait, you can turn into an animal too?" said Prue.

One minute Sirius was there, the next there was a massive black dog in the room. He barked cheerfully before he swapped back.

"I so have to learn how to do that," said Phoebe enviously.

* * *

><p>Piper was officially exhausted. While she had avoided being roped into upgrading the wards, she had been saddled with <em>Quake<em> a few days after getting the job and was stuck acting as manager without any training at all.

Thank whatever gods they were supposed to pray to that Cerri knew how to handle this mess!

"I am going to kill him," said Piper.

"Well let me know when you need to hide the body of He-with-the-phony-accent," said Cerri, taking a sip of her drink.

"Who exactly do we pray to anyway?" asked Piper once she had a moment of free time.

"In your case I would say...Hestia, the Greek Goddess of Home and Hearth. Or Gaia, the Earth Goddess. There's also Diana, who goes by Selena and Artemis. That's the moon goddess," said Cerri, listing all the known Wiccan goddesses that might suit Piper.

"Which one do you pray to for luck?"

"Loki or Gaia, usually Gaia," said Cerri automatically.

"Wait, isn't Loki an evil god?"

"He's also the patron of tricksters and shapeshifters. Apparently Sirius worshiped him for luck when he first started learning how to become an animagus, and the werewolves worship him because not only is he the patron of shifters, but the father of Fenrir, who they call the Great Wolf. Besides, it was either Loki or I pray to Eris, and frankly I don't need any more chaos or discord in my life," said Cerri shrugging.

She was already going to bring this up with the girls later.

"Cerri, can you please go over the books?" asked Piper almost begging.

"Sure, lead the way. I can't believe this loser just dumped the restaurant on you without checking to see if you had prior training first."

"If he does anything like this again, I want you do put him on the Wall," said Piper vindictively.

"Which brings up another point. Piper, do us all a favor and quit watching that history garbage."

Piper paused.

"What are you talking about?"

"Wiccans aren't evil, and the only idiots caught by the Salem Witch Trials were the insane non-magicals. Anyone with a lick of sense or had any real power fled Salem once the girls were caught with hallucinogenic mushrooms, because they had already fled Europe. In short, most of the nonsense they're reporting is only filled with half the story. Besides, you're a Wiccan, and so long as you don't use your powers to harm others then the Church could care less about your existence," said Cerri flatly.

She had caught the tail end of a history special Piper had been watching shortly after Jeremy was taken out. It didn't take much to guess why she had been watching that particular show and out of all of them Piper was easily the most freaked by magic.

Better to stop the paranoia from growing before she had a nervous break down.

Piper seemed to calm down a little. She was really stressed out because of the restaurant. She barely knew what she was doing!

* * *

><p>Cerri looked up when she heard the tapping during a song. It was Andy, Prue's ex.<p>

"Can I help you?"

"I want a you to send out a bulletin warning the women of the city. Someone's been targeting girls and they've been going missing. Most of them around Quake."

"Do we have a general description?"

"Not yet. Just tell the listeners to be careful."

"I'll post the bulletin, but it would be better if we knew who to look for. I'll just advise the listeners that there's been a rash of kidnappings targeting young women. Coincidentally how did things go with Prue?"

Andy looked sheepish.

"She pulled a one-night stand on me and ducked out before I woke up," he said.

"Give her some space. Some of Gram's inheritance finally kicked in and it's taking a while for things to settle down. Plus we're having some scheduling conflicts because Phoebe moved back, and only one of the bathrooms is useable due to remodeling," said Cerri.

Andy winced and wisely said nothing.

* * *

><p>Cerri took Prue aside after dinner.<p>

"Prue, do you like Andy?"

"It's complicated."

"Yes or no."

"I like him, but I wasn't expecting to sleep with him..." she mumbled.

"I know a spell to erase short term memory. Would you be adverse to telling Andy the real reason you're reluctant to date him, and if so could you handle keeping your distance if he reacts badly?"

"You can erase memories?"

"How do you think magicals have stayed hidden since the witch hunts? We erase the memory of anyone who's not supposed to know and they can't tell anyone about us. In other words we can tell Andy the truth about our powers and if he reacts badly I can make it go away without any consequences."

"After we deal with whoever's kidnapping women," said Prue.

Andy was surprised when Prue invited him to the house. Mostly because of the awkward way he ran into her while pursuing the guy kidnapping the women lately.

He knew something was up when he saw Sirius Black, the private detective who helped out when they needed surveillance.

"So what's this about?"

"You wanted to know why Prue was at that scene last night don't you?" said Cerri.

Andy was wondering about that.

Prue was tired of hiding...which was why she blurted out "I'm a witch."


	10. Chapter 10

**YES PEOPLE, I AM ALIVE! AND I COME BEARING A MASS UPDATE TO MAKE UP FOR THE WAIT!**

**I have had a really, REALLY bad case of luck for a full month. Starting with the car finally giving up the ghost and ending with my mother being in and out of the hospital. On the plus side, my muse has gotten the swift kick in the ass it needed to update some of the older fics. Here's to hoping the rest of the month is better after the mess the last was.**

* * *

><p>All in all, Andy took the news his girlfriend was a Wiccan-raised witch rather well. He had required some demonstrations to believe them, but once he saw the truth he didn't freak out like Prue feared.<p>

It helped he had been the detective in charge of finding Jeremy.

Prue was just glad she didn't have to hide her powers from Andy. Cerri was pleased they now had more official support from the police...outside of just Sirius that is.

* * *

><p>Prue was manning the store while Cerri went to get lunch when the man walked in.<p>

"Can I help you?"

"I heard you do appraisals of odd antique pieces," he said with a smile.

Something about him bugged her, and it wasn't his eyes. He seemed familiar. Too familiar.

"I'm the appraiser, but the owner will be back shortly if you want to wait to discuss pricing."

"I just want to get a ring appraised," he said calmly.

This guy sent her hackles up. Normally she would turn him away to a jeweler, but thankfully Cerri showed up.

"Prue, I got the chicken salad you wanted..." started Cerri before she saw the man in the shop. Unlike Prue, Cerri recognized him from the few photos in the house. "I'm sorry sir, but I have to ask you to leave. I should have put up a sign saying we were closed for lunch."

The man took the hint she knew who he was, though he didn't know who she was.

The moment the door closed, Cerri locked it.

"Who was that?"

"That, Prue, was Victor. Your _dad_."

Prue did her best to keep from breaking something. Now she was glad Cerri had gotten rid of him.

"I find it suspicious he just _happens_ to show up less than a month after your powers were unsealed when he never even came to Grams funeral."

"How did you know it was him?"

"Grams may not have liked him, but she kept pictures up in the attic. He might be older but I recognize him," said Cerri simply.

* * *

><p>"Dad's here? In San Francisco?" said Phoebe eagerly.<p>

Cerri snorted, and immediately went to power the wards to full strength. She wasn't trusting anyone Grams threw out while they were going to the party next door. The wards would keep anyone not given permission from entering, and anything not human would be thrown out violently.

To date, the only ones who had permission to enter when they weren't there were Remus, Sirius, Leo, Luna and the Potter siblings. Rose, Derrick and Harry were doing much better since graduating Magic School, but they avoided Europe like the plague after the word came out that James and Lily were alive.

Better to be 'exiled' from their parents homeland than to deal with the viper's pit that was England's magical society.

Cerri had dressed up in something comfortably classy. However the second she saw their hosts, her alarms were raised. Their smiles didn't reach their eyes, and her magical radar was pinging like crazy. To add to her unease, she felt the wards toss out two 'non-human' visitors trying to break in through an open window in her room. She hated having it closed, except during winters. The wards alerted her twice more before they dumped Prue on an amused Andy.

Once that was over with she went straight back to the house.

Something had tried to break in. And judging by the incensed looking crows in the trees, she had an idea what.

"Hedwig, defend the house," she whispered.

The white owl took off and went after the crows like they were prey. They narrowly escaped her talons, as Hedwig was extremely territorial.

"So what was that about?" asked Phoebe.

"I'm guessing Victor's fallen in with shapeshifters. They just tried to break into the house. They weren't expecting the wards to be active though," said Cerri smugly.

Phoebe frowned.

"But what makes you think Dad's in with these shifters?"

"Don't you think it's suspicious he shows up less than a month after your powers were unsealed, and at the same time as group of shape shifters who just _happen_ to move in next door? I don't buy it, and if he _isn't_ in league with them, I'll be pleasantly surprised," deadpanned Cerri.

"I'm going to have to agree with her on this one. It does seem pretty odd that he shows up the same time as two shifters trying to attack the house, and so soon after you cast that spell," said Piper reluctantly.

"They can be after one of two things. One is the Book of Shadows. The other is you three. I'm guessing it's the book," said Cerri.

She couldn't see him agreeing to hand over his daughters. But the Book was something else entirely. And it would explain why they tried to get into the house. No one would be stupid enough to attack the Charmed Ones in their seat of power, even if they were currently untrained.

"What's so special about the Book?" asked Phoebe.

"It's a family Grimiore. Everything the Warren family had learned from Melinda down to you. That means it's powerful. Especially now that it's tied to the Book of Shades, which is full of so much dark and evil elements that anything who would want to do harm would kill to get it. The thing is, the only ones who could remove the book from the safety of the house are you three. I'm allowed to open it and read it, but that's about it," said Cerri.

"Let me put it this way. If any witch or wizard tried to steal it and failed, they would go to jail for life. And I'm talking magical prison, not the ones you're used to. Stealing that book is a serious offense because it's a family artifact...especially since it's something passed down from the original witch of the family," said Sirius.

Blood feuds had been started for less.

"It sounds pretty severe..." said Phoebe wide-eyed.

"It is. Line theft is a major crime, up there with killing people or child sacrifice. Hell, Sirius was shocked when he found out Grams let me study from the Book since I'm only related to you through your grandfather...at least before I was adopted," said Cerri.

* * *

><p>Victor wasn't about to give up, so he tried a new tactic. He went to Phoebe during her four-hour stint as the radio station's "love guru". Each sister was allowed to play whatever music they liked, though it had to be appealing to other women. Phoebe, for example, liked to play love songs and the odd classic rock. Piper liked country, rock and the odd dance music, while Prue and Cerri liked classical.<p>

"This is the fabulous Phoebe, HEXX's resident cupid. So caller, what matters of the heart are troubling you today?" she said cheerfully.

"_I recently came to visit my daughters, who I've been estranged from for years because of their grandmother having custody. They don't seem to want anything to do with me after hearing her lies, but I still want to rekindle our relationship,"_ said the voice.

Phoebe winced, recognizing it from the pensieve as Victor. He was slick, calling the station anonymously so they couldn't block his calls and forcing her to answer.

"Well caller, perhaps your best bet is to clear the air and lay out the truth in a neutral ground. Or better yet, start fresh and explain the situation. However, if you're just trying to reconnect for the wrong reasons, expect an explosive outcome. We'll be right back after a few words from our sponsors," said Phoebe. She felt relief hanging up on her father.

She threw in a few random songs that would fit the mood, before she sighed. Thanks to Cerri she knew how to switch off the mike, so she had a brief break in between songs.

"Knock knock. I heard the radio, how are you doing?" asked Cerri. She had come up the second she recognized the voice while Prue watched the shop.

"Stressed. Thanks for enforcing the 'no visitors' rule. I'm sure he might have come by if this wasn't a privately funded station," said Phoebe.

HEXX's location was considered something of a secret, as was the true picture of the DJ's. Because it was privately funded, both by the Potter fortune, the Black fortune and a select few sponsors who wanted a part of the HEXX franchise, the location was never fully disclosed. Toss in a few notice-me-not charms on the antenna array, a few lightning runes and other spells to knock out the need for paying the power company, and you had a full self-sustaining radio station.

And since most of the technical stuff was done by computer and touch screens, Cerri could legitimately claim it was a computer company that leased the upper level of her occult shop.

To add to the security, most of her employees were either first generation witches or people who could enter an occult shop and no one would bat an eye. Usually new-age wiccans who had little idea of how to conduct a ceremony properly who signed a nondisclosure agreement.

If people knew HEXX was above the occult shop, she'd have to hire guards.

* * *

><p>Victor called Prue after with the offer of a nice dinner in a open location for her and her sisters. He still had no idea Penny had adopted Cerri into the family, or that she was considered the fourth sister.<p>

If Victor was surprised by the occult shop owner joining the girls, he kept it to himself. Cerri opted to get her own table within hearing distance, but still in a rather discreet area. She was mostly there for support and to insure nothing happened.

Victor chose to address Phoebe first.

"I was surprised to hear you on the radio."

Phoebe shrugged.

"I had no idea what to do after high school, and Cerri had this big idea for a radio station since she wanted to hear some decent music. In between the part time job at the shop and acting as a DJ, it was better than some of the other options."

Prue had been glad Phoebe chose to work at the station rather than drift from one job to the next. She was surprisingly _good_ at it, even if she originally needed Cerri to put the music she picked onto the air for her.

"And Piper, I heard you're running a restaurant," said Victor.

"It's less about me running it and more along the lines of the chef who ran the one I was applying to dumped it on me to run another," she informed him.

Victor looked at Prue.

"I quit my job at the museum because of a jealous and obnoxious ex. Working at the shop gives me something to do until I find someplace worth my time and allows me to have a little sisterly bonding with our youngest sibling," shrugged Prue.

"Speaking of your youngest sibling, I didn't recognize her at all."

"You wouldn't, considering she was originally our cousin from England who Grams adopted into the family from an abusive home. She only came to San Francisco around eight, nine years ago?" said Prue to Piper.

"Sounds about right," said Piper.

Victor realized he was treading on treacherous ground, so he switched topics. Namely their powers and the real reason he had been chased out of the house.

"Well?" said Cerri.

Prue and Piper winced.

"He knew, and I think he's working with the people who tried to break in," said Piper. Cerri had left shortly after finishing her light meal, and hadn't ordered dessert.

"Actually I had Sirius look into Victor the moment he called Phoebe while she was on air. He's being blackmailed and I'm guessing the shifters are using the fact you are still relatively new to magic as a way to force him to hand over the book. He wasn't expecting me to be around though," said Cerri.

She was going to have a...talk...with Victor tomorrow about his intentions. She wasn't going to let their estranged father hurt them.

* * *

><p>Victor took one look outside his hotel room and winced. Cerri Halliwell was standing there.<p>

"Come on in," he said.

"Let's cut to the chase. I know you're being blackmailed by those shapeshifters for the Book of Shadows. But there is information they didn't bother to tell you."

"What kind of information?"

"If they were to get their hands on the Book, it constitutes as line theft among the magical population. A crime worthy of being jailed for the rest of their unnatural life, or at worst death. But the fact is if they get their hands on it so soon after the powers were unsealed, then it would signal the Charmed Ones are weak."

Seeing he didn't get it, Cerri leveled a look at him.

"Magicals place a lot of stock in the power of their lineage. Even though they only recently got their powers, quite a few people put a great deal of respect in the power of the Charmed Ones. If they allow the book to leave their possession, it would make them look weak to the other witches and wizards. That would open them up to even more attacks and trouble I am in no mood to do damage control for. They might be new to the magical world, but Grams made very sure I knew what to do once their powers were unsealed."

"I see," he said. But he didn't. Not really.

"Magicals put great faith in the family lines. And coming from the Warren clan, Prue, Piper and Phoebe have a lot to live up to. If they can't handle a group of shifters after the greatest tome in their family, then people will question whether their ability is as great as legend claims," said Cerri, "Either way, I can't allow them to get their claws on it. Not when it would put my own abilities and station into question. Tell those shifters if they continue to try and break in through my wards, they'll have to deal with a pissed off Whitelighter who won't hesitate to fry them all. Or don't, and watch them get killed anyway. I take the safety of my family seriously."

Two days later the shifters tried to attack Phoebe just outside the edge of the wards. She managed to get back inside them, and they ended up being fried by their own magic. She was horrified when she saw it.

"What was that?!"

"Attempted line theft is serious business. The fact they tried to break into our home and attack the Warren family's ancestral home is more than enough to earn them a death sentence in the magical world. If they succeeded in getting the book, they would have been killed anyway. Besides, only an idiot attacks someone from a very long and powerful magical line on their own territory," said Cerri unsympathetic.

And the wards would insure the cops would never be called. The only reports that would be filed were the ones stating the attack and the response.

The fact Victor never warned them that Cerri was a Whitelighter meant he wanted them to handle it, seeing as how they never asked if he knew anything about the wards.


End file.
